


The Accidental Threesome (Or, Five Times Duke Might’ve Date-Crashed, and One Time the Date Crashed Him)

by Jadzibelle



Series: Date!Verse [1]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: AU from Mid-S4, Accidental Dating, Background Dwight Hendrickson x Jennifer Mason, Chapter 6 will jump the rating to explicit, Chapters 1-5 are rated t, Everyone Knows But Duke, F/M, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Multi, Secondary Character: Dwight Hendrickson, Secondary Character: Jennifer Mason, Some angst, Unnecessary Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-02 16:28:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5255291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadzibelle/pseuds/Jadzibelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Duke crashed one of their dates, it was genuinely an accident.  He honestly didn’t know it was a date, and seriously, how was he supposed to know it was any different from any of the dozens of other times the two of them had shown up together at his restaurant?<br/>--<br/>Or: How Duke spends more than a month unaware that he's dating his best friends.  He's the only one who missed that memo.<br/>--<br/>Chapters 1-5 are fluff and mild angst.  Chapter 6 is smut and mild angst, and jumps the rating to explicit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The first time Duke crashed one of their dates, it was genuinely an accident.  He honestly didn’t know it was a date, and seriously, how was he supposed to know it was any different from any of the dozens of other times the two of them had shown up together at his restaurant?  It wasn’t like it was  _uncommon_ \- Audrey  _lived upstairs_ , they had dinner at the Gull three times a week- and they were his friends, he  _usually_ made an effort to stop by their table and socialize when they were there.  If they’d expected anything different, they should’ve  _told him_  it was a date.

It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have cleared out immediately if they’d implied, even indirectly, that his presence was unwelcome.

As it was, when he’d dropped down onto the bench next to Nathan, Nathan had only blinked once and shifted over enough to make space for him, the way he  _always did_ , and Audrey had greeted him with a warm smile and a faint flicker of surprise before including him in the conversation, the way she  _always did_ , and they’d had a perfectly pleasant dinner, the way they  _always did_.  The only thing Duke noticed as being  _different_  was that there was absolutely no talk about work whatsoever, that Audrey and Nathan were both deliberately working to keep the conversation away from the most recent case they’d handled.  Which was a nice change of pace, actually, and it was  _Nathan_  who’d started bringing up some of the mischief he and Duke had gotten into, back when they were idiot teenagers, and Duke had just kinda run with it, and Audrey had  _laughed_ , warm and open and happy, and encouraged them.

When dinner was finished and Duke had insisted they try the new dessert he’d added to the menu and they’d had coffee and wine and it was technically an hour past closing- benefits of owning the joint, he could send the rest of the staff home and keep socializing- it was Audrey who reluctantly acknowledged that it was time to call it a night.  If Duke was a little surprised that, when he and Nathan stood up, she leaned up on her toes to kiss Nathan on the cheek, and then repeated the gesture with him, well, she’d had a lot of wine, it’d been a good night, and hell, Audrey could be affectionate sometimes.  Not usually that obviously, but it happened, on occasion.

And if he’d smiled and teasingly dropped a kiss of his own on Nathan’s cheek, well, he’d had a lot of wine too, and it’d been a good night, and he and Nathan had never had a particularly strong sense of personal space.  Nathan moved to walk Audrey upstairs, Duke went off to actually close up the Gull for the night, and he thought no more of it.

Until the next morning, when he was at the station, and Audrey had greeted his arrival with coffee with a slightly warmer smile than usual, and Nathan had actually  _greeted_  his arrival at all, and the atmosphere in their office was just a little  _different_.  It didn’t set in precisely  _what_ was different until he’d wandered off to find something for Nathan (because he could be  _useful_  when he was just hanging around, really he could) and happened to notice Jennifer pulling Audrey aside.  Curious, he shifted just enough to  _listen_  from around the corner of the hall.

“So?  Last night?” Jennifer prompted, and Duke knew that tone, the deliberately significant way she was asking, and a flicker of suspicion formed.  “How did the date go?”

And Duke swallowed down a rush of  _chagrin_ , because  _wow_ , okay, he’d  _definitely_  overstepped, how had he  _not_  figured that out-

“It went great,” Audrey replied, her voice warm, and full of a comfortable sort of  _joy_.  “It was- seriously, it was perfect.”  Jennifer made a high-pitched sort of sound, and there was a shuffle of noise that was  _probably_  somebody bouncing up and down, and Audrey laughed, quiet and real.

“Ugh, I am so jealous, I swear,” Jennifer said, “I can’t even  _tell_  if Dwight and I are actually a thing.”

“You are,” Audrey said, with another laugh.  “Trust me, he’s into you.”

“Okay, okay, I know you’re at work, but you have to tell me  _all about it_ later,” Jennifer said.

“I promise, drinks tonight, just us girls.”  There was another decidedly gleeful sound, and the sound of people  _moving_ , and Duke quickly found somewhere else to be standing.  And okay, so, fine, he’d date-crashed, but apparently it hadn’t actually spoiled Audrey’s enjoyment of the evening, so he was  _not_  going to feel guilty about it.  They could’ve  _said something_ , after all.  He’d just have to pay more attention, next time, make sure it wasn’t supposed to be a private event before he made himself comfortable at their table.

And hell, at least he knew they were happy.


	2. Chapter 2

The second time, it was coincidence.  Duke was technically  _working_ , okay, he was the caterer, he was on site in a completely official and legit capacity.  He’d had no idea whatsoever that Audrey and Nathan were going to be at the charming little art-film  _showing_  that was happening, he’d certainly not  _intended_  to interject himself into their evening.

It was literally nothing but chance that he happened to be checking in with one of his employees relatively near the door when Audrey and Nathan arrived, and it would’ve been  _rude_  not to at least acknowledge that they were there.  And they looked  _good_ , were dressed up for the event, and it was so rare to see either of them out of their work-appropriate attire (even Audrey, and literally, she _lived at his place_ , he saw her a  _lot_  outside of work, and he still rarely saw her in anything but her work-appropriate attire) that he couldn’t pass up the chance to comment.

Was definitely going to have to find more opportunities to comment, given the way Audrey  _preened_  at his compliment and Nathan blushed just a little bit and ducked his head.  And, much to Duke’s surprise, made the effort to comment on  _Duke’s_  attire, because, as mentioned, Duke was  _working_ , was there in a professional capacity, and he was business-savvy enough to know that it was not appropriate for the caterer to show up in skinny jeans and a couple layers of button-ups.  Duke laughed off the compliment, and offered to bring them both drinks, and when he’d made sure Audrey had her favorite red wine and Nathan his favorite scotch, well, he may have lingered to talk, just for a minute.

His staff, after all, had things well in hand (were probably more qualified than  _he_  was, all things considered), and Audrey had pouted at him the first time he’d tried to politely excuse himself from the conversation.

He and his people had been offered seats as part of the arrangements for the event; he hadn’t expected Nathan to shepherd Audrey over to where Duke was sitting, when the films actually started.  Hadn’t expected Audrey to lean against his shoulder at least as often as she leaned against Nathan’s, hadn’t expected Nathan to occasionally lean around behind Audrey to make some dry comment next to his ear and startle a laugh out of him, and it was- it was  _nice_ , it was fun, it was  _comfortable_.

Even if the movies were kind of terrible.  Duke  _understood_  art films, he just… really didn’t  _enjoy_  them.  But at least Nathan had a lot of material to work with.

When the night wrapped up and the crowd began to disperse, Audrey tucked herself under Nathan’s arm, but still caught Duke by the shoulder and pressed a kiss to his cheek.  Nathan just reached out and adjusted Duke’s tie, his touch lingering just a trace longer than strictly necessary before he said good night and led Audrey out.

Duke had no idea how to respond to that, honestly, but he had cleanup to oversee, and didn’t have time to dwell on it anyway.  Still, when his phone buzzed a few minutes later with a text from Audrey, asking if he was going to come by the station in the morning, the answer he sent back was  _of course._


	3. Chapter 3

The third time was Jennifer’s fault.

It was a quiet evening at the Gull, one of those rare nights when the place was mostly empty, and Duke was wiping down the bar and enjoying- as only someone who  _knew_  it was a rare night could- the temporary quiet and stillness in his establishment.  Jennifer slipped in the door, looking windblown and harried, and threw herself onto one of the barstools with enough force that Duke was a little afraid she was going to topple it.  She didn’t- barely- and heaved a huge sigh before she’d even bothered to look up.

“You sound like you need a drink,” Duke observed, the obvious statement meant to encourage her to explain.  “Margarita or daiquiri, today?”

“Daiquiri, sweet, you have  _no idea_ -” Jennifer started, before she stopped, blinked, and  _frowned_.  “Wait, what are you still doing here?”

“…Excuse me?”  Duke paused in the act of reaching for the rum, and Jennifer glanced at her watch and her frown deepened.

“You’re going to be  _late_ ,” she said, and Duke blinked, because as far as he knew, he didn’t have any plans for the evening beyond annoying Nora by pretending he was the one who was actually supposed to be tending bar (particularly unnecessary, on a slow night).

“I am?” Duke asked, scrambling to remember what he could possibly have committed to and immediately dismissed, because to be fair, he did do that sometimes.  Usually only with things he didn’t care about, though, and it would’ve been unlikely that he would’ve dismissed something that Jennifer considered important, and if she was worried about him being late, clearly she considered it important.

“Yeah, you’re supposed to be there at seven, it’s six thirty and you’re not dressed.  Go, go home, get cleaned up, if you  _hurry_  you’ll make the reservation.  Seriously, Audrey’s going to be  _pissed_  if you’re late, she’s been looking forward to checking out The Blue Lily since it  _opened_.”

And  _that_  was  _definitely_  not in the category of things he would’ve dismissed, he was  _very sure_  he would’ve known about it if he’d had plans with Audrey, but Jennifer was making shooing motions with her hands, looked  _certain_ , and hell, it  _was_  Haven.  It was entirely possible he  _had_  made plans and forgotten them- he’d misplaced entire  _weeks_ over the last few years, it would not be  _that_  unusual.

“…Right.  I should… go do that, then,” Duke said, and Nora was already headed over, clearly more than happy to actually be allowed to  _do her job_ , and Jennifer just rolled her eyes and made another very pointed motion in the direction of the door.  Slightly cowed by her intensity, Duke  _went_ , still trying to figure out what could account for this particular gap in his awareness.

He really did hate living in Haven.

He arrived at The Blue Lily, freshly showered, shaved, and wearing something appropriate for the moderately-upscale atmosphere of the town’s newest restaurant, with five minutes to spare.  Audrey was waiting just outside the door, in the dubious shelter of one of the low, decorative hedges that framed the walkway.  It was  _windy_ , and Duke shrugged out of his jacket before he reached her, draped it over her shoulders as soon as he approached.

“Duke!  Good, they won’t seat us if we’re not all here,” she said, so apparently Jennifer was correct, and Duke made a note to thank her tomorrow.  Audrey smiled up at him as she tugged his jacket in around her shoulders, and Duke smiled back before he caught the rest of the implication of her sentence.   _All_ \- he glanced around, and gave her a questioning look.

“Nate on his way?” he guessed, and Audrey nodded, and, apparently not content enough with his jacket, shifted over to huddle against his chest, using him as a more solid windbreak than the hedge.

“He’ll be here, he was just running a minute behind.  You’re going to help me figure out the wine, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what they’ll have on the menu, I’ll help you find something good,” he agreed, and she smiled and leaned into him.

“Good.”

“You two look cold,” Nathan observed, and Duke glanced up, wondering if he should be prepared for irritation, hostility- Audrey was pretty definitely in his personal space, and Nathan did still get  _tense_ about other people being too close to her.  Nathan, though, just looked  _amused_ , cracked a rare smile as Audrey pulled back and made a face at him.

“Yeah, well, not all of us are immune to the elements,” she said, a note of petulance in her tone, and Nathan chuckled.

“You want my jacket, make it fair?” he asked, fixing Duke with a teasing look, and Duke laughed, and reached out to shove his shoulder lightly.

“Or you could shut up and we could go inside where it’s not windy,” he countered, and Nathan rocked back from his shove, and then leaned in, keeping the contact for an extra moment.

“S’ppose that works too,” Nathan agreed, reaching out to wrap an arm around Audrey’s waist, pulling her in against his side, and apparently Duke wasn’t moving fast enough, because he reached out with his other hand and pressed it against the small of Duke’s back, giving him a gentle push in the direction of the doorway.  Duke rolled his eyes, but didn’t bother to protest, to argue that he was perfectly capable of making it the ten feet to the door without help.

Nathan kept his hand on Duke’s back all the way to their table.

When they were all seated, Duke pressed into the corner of Audrey’s side of the table this time, they went over the menus, Audrey and Nathan both demanding information from him, asking questions about this or that item or preparation, until Audrey settled on the scampi and Nathan picked the duck and Duke had guided them to the appropriate wine selection for their meals.

Dinner was excellent; the conversation was easy and relaxed and fun, even if Duke did feel a little pang of jealousy that he was under no circumstances going to admit to every time Audrey reached across the table to trace her fingertips over the back of Nathan’s hand.  Still, despite the not-at-all-casual touches exchanged, he couldn’t exactly complain that he was being left out, even if it felt vaguely like this  _should_  be a date.

But Audrey had clearly made the reservation for three, Jennifer had been aware that he’d been included in these plans, he’d been  _expected_ to be there.  He wasn’t date crashing.  Therefore it was not a date.

It was harder to be certain of that logic when, as they left the restaurant, Audrey slipped one arm around Nathan’s waist and one around his, with Duke’s jacket back over her shoulders.  It really kind of  _felt_  like a date, particularly when Nathan made good on his joke from earlier and draped  _his_  jacket over Duke’s shoulders.  Duke thought he should probably object, but it had only gotten colder as it had gotten later, and Nathan genuinely wasn’t bothered, but Duke was used to more layers.

Audrey kept Duke’s jacket, insisting that the heater in her car wouldn’t even get  _warm_  in the time it took to get back to her apartment.  Nathan told Duke to hold on to his, that he could give it back in the morning.

Duke promised to bring breakfast along with the coffees, and wondered just what the hell he’d gotten himself into.


	4. Chapter 4

The fourth time, the fourth time was deliberate.

Duke was confused and vaguely unsure, after the whole thing with the reservations and the jackets and breakfast the next morning.  It had been  _nice_ , it had been  _comfortable_ , the way things were  _usually_  nice and comfortable between them when they weren’t, y’know, fighting over something or scrambling to manage the disaster of the week.  And honestly, they hadn’t  _been_  fighting, not for a while, and Duke wasn’t entirely sure if that was because Nathan was still jittery and reeling after the whole Barn thing and the whole Lexi thing and just didn’t have the bandwidth to get hostile over little things, or if it was that  _Duke_  simply didn’t have the time or energy to get involved in the sort of thing Nathan usually objected to, or if it was just that at some point their old arguments had just run out of momentum in the wake of everything that was their lives now, but whatever it was, Duke wasn’t complaining.  It was just… odd, because nothing had really changed, but there was  _something_  sitting just out of step.

Because Audrey and Nathan  _were dating_.  That was a fact, that was provable.  And he was not being difficult about that, because they were his friends and he cared about them and he was going to be  _supportive_ , damnit.  But he had expected… more of a change, when they finally did manage to get things together.  He’d expected things to not be quite as…  _normal_.

He hadn’t quite expected that the amount of time they’d want him around would  _increase_.  But it was apparently a  _thing_ , now, if he didn’t show up in the morning with coffee or swing by at some point with lunch, one or the other of them would start texting to find out  _why_.  Where he was and if he was okay and  _when_  he would be in, not  _if_.

It was odd, was the point, particularly because _no one else_  seemed to think it was even slightly odd at all.  His careful, cautious inquiries to Jennifer had simply gotten him blank confusion; Dwight acted like it was just  _assumed_  that Duke would be around and involved regardless of what was going on; hell,  _Laverne_  had started trying his phone when she couldn’t get Nathan or Audrey on the police radios, and  _none of that_  made sense to him.

So the fourth time, it was deliberate.  Information-gathering, of a sort- or perhaps more accurately, boundary testing.

As had become almost less habit and more a secondary (tertiary, if he was counting his ‘imports’ business, but he really wasn’t at this point- he just plain didn’t have  _time_  and the idea of taking off for days at a stretch and leaving Nathan and Audrey without someone to watch their backs was just  _unsettling_ ) job, Duke was loitering in the station while Audrey and Nathan worked, and happened to overhear Nathan and Dwight talking.  Eavesdropping was supposedly a bad habit, but Duke had always found its benefits to outweigh its downsides, so he stopped and listened.

“Need to adjust the shift schedule for Friday,” Dwight was saying, which was boring and mundane and definitely  _not_  of interest to Duke, “do I need to worry about you and Parker?”

“Plans,” Nathan said, and  _that_  was neither mundane nor boring.  “We’re out by four unless it’s an emergency.  Going out to Derrie for the band competition… thing.  Parker’s idea.”  Nathan sounded fondly exasperated, as though he couldn’t possibly imagine why Audrey thought watching a bunch of high school musicians attempt to one-up each other was a good idea, though Duke remembered at least a couple of years  _before_  Audrey had been around when they’d wound up out that way, and it sure as hell hadn’t been  _Duke’s_  idea.

“Fancy date,” Dwight commented, sounding amused.

“Dinner after,” Nathan justified.  “Sushi place, supposed to be the best around.”  And  _that_  was perplexing, because Nathan wasn’t really into seafood, and Audrey generally preferred her seafood in the ‘breaded and fried’ or ‘smothered in white wine sauce’ categories, but maybe they’d actually  _listened_  to one of his (many) lectures on expanding their palates and trying something  _different_  once in a while.

Strange a thought as Nathan Wuornos voluntarily expanding his palate was.

“Fine, I’ll make sure you have the time assuming nothing major comes up.  Need you in for sure on Sunday, though, I promised Jennifer we’d go out to the Harvest Market.”

“Sure,” Nathan agreed, and they moved on to less interesting things, and Duke wandered back to Nathan and Audrey’s office, dropping down into his chair in front of Audrey’s desk.  She gave him a warm smile and launched into an explanation of their latest not-quite-emergency, and Duke listened, honestly, but his focus was split.

That was  _definitely_  a date, after all.  Not plans he should be aware of, let alone involved in.

But the reservation for three was still nagging at him, and there wasn’t any real harm in running a little test, right?  After all, it was a public event- if he just  _happened_  to run into them, well, it wouldn’t be the first time.  And he’d  _know_ , this time, so he could try and figure out if he was supposed to be  _backing off_  or not.

Better to give them the opportunity to politely disengage in a situation where he knew what was going on, where there was no reason for them to feel socially obligated to keep him entertained or include him.  It’d be good, he’d get some clarity and the question would be put to rest and he could go back to hanging around without feeling like he was  _interrupting_.

So if he happened to be outside the community center building in Derrie a good half an hour before the event started, toying with his phone in a location where he couldn’t possibly miss Audrey and Nathan’s arrival, well, it was just for clarity’s sake.  

They arrived ten minutes after the first band had started, and Duke tucked his phone away, fully planning to just happen to casually intercept them.

That would’ve been easier if Nathan didn’t catch sight of him and immediately turn in his direction, tugging Audrey along in his wake.  It was very hard to be casual about crossing their path when they were making absolutely no effort not to head right for him.  Which was not how this was supposed to be going.

“How late are we?” Nathan asked, by way of greeting, and Duke shrugged easily, trying to actually  _manage_  casual.

“First band’s only ten minutes into their set,” he said, and Nathan looked relieved.

“I  _told you_  we weren’t that late,” Audrey said, rolling her eyes.  “Duke, the next time he tries to give you a traffic ticket, remind him that I was  _there_ , I know how fast he was going, you get at  _least_  one free pass.  Maybe two.”

“…That is- my driving does not  _void_  his illegal parking!” Nathan exclaimed, clearly indignant, and Duke laughed, taken off-guard and genuinely amused.

“Oh, no, I like this,” he said, and Audrey grinned at him.  “Is, does this apply to other things, because seriously, I have a whole  _list_  of-”

“Don’t push it,” Audrey interrupted, still grinning.  “Or do you really want to see what happens if I have to start giving him free passes for  _your_ malfeasance?”

“Oh, come on, it’s  _Nathan_ , what’s he gonna do?” Duke replied, scoffing.  “He’s one of the good guys, remember?”

“I can think of a few things,” Nathan said, voice full of wicked humor, the sort of tone Duke hadn’t heard from him since they were  _teenagers_ \- all playful threat and lacking any trace of real malice.  “Don’t think I don’t have a list of my own.”

“I am well aware that you have taken great pains to chronicle my every misstep in flawless detail,” Duke returned, because it  _was_  just teasing, and it lacked the sharp teeth that kind of comment might’ve had a year ago.  “But  _I_  am not an upstanding beacon of truth and justice.”

“You say, implying that he  _is_ , less than a minute after implying that he’s  _not_ ,” Audrey pointed out, elbowing him in the side.  “Bicker later, guys, I want to actually hear the bands we drove all the way out here for.”

And Duke’s amusement faded; for a moment, he’d forgotten why he was there, had fallen into the new pattern of everything just kind of being easy, but this was definitely the part where he got a polite dismissal and they actually went off and had their date.  Which was the  _whole point_  of this exercise.

“Right.  Third group on the schedule is supposed to be pretty good, Rebeccca’s kid, Dylan, he knows one of the kids in it from tennis, she says Dylan insists they’re actually serious about taking their music somewhere,” Nathan said, moving his hand to the small of Audrey’s back and starting to guide her toward the door.  Duke braced for the indication that he should make himself scarce-

-and Nathan gave him a slightly bemused look, and tilted his head in the direction of the doorway, a clear and pointed,  _you just gonna stand there_? that Duke didn’t need years of familiarity to read.  …And, okay, maybe he hadn’t actually thought this through entirely, because he obviously wouldn’t have driven out to  _Derrie_  and camped out at an event to  _not actually participate_  in said event, so he really had no choice but to follow them inside.

And still, the dismissal didn’t come; Duke settled himself at the edge of the crowd, and Nathan and Audrey stopped moving when he did, stayed close enough for easy conversation even in milling press of people, even with the over-loud noise of the amplifiers for the bass and guitar, even with the…  _energy_  of the drummer.  And it went much the way the movies had, with Audrey seeming perfectly content to lean into his space, and Nathan expressing enjoyment or polite and careful critique (they were  _kids_ , after all- there was no need to be harsh, even if some of them did have more enthusiasm than skill) to the both of them without any apparent concern.

This was really  _not_  helping establish any kind of boundaries.

The third group was  _good_ , and so was the sixth.  Duke thought the sixth group had more technical skill, was doing slightly more interesting things with their writing- Nathan thought that the third group had more  _heart_ , that their style was more  _authentic_ , whatever the hell that was supposed to mean, and they were still discussing the various merits of each (and pausing to agree every now and again that it was  _utterly_ ridiculous that the eighth group had actually  _won_ , when clearly both their picks were superior) as they walked out.  Duke was wrapped up enough in the conversation that he honestly didn’t even notice that Nathan had by-default led them back to Nathan’s truck until Audrey was rolling her eyes and calling them both ridiculous and moving the front seat so that the back was accessible.

“I drove,” Duke pointed out, once again in the uncomfortable space of being not entirely sure what was going on, and aware that he  _really_ should be getting told to  _back off_  at some point.

“Know that,” Nathan replied, like  _Duke_  was the one behaving oddly, “Drop you back here after dinner, c’mon.”

“I-” Duke started, but Audrey nudged him pointedly at the truck.

“We had to skip lunch to make sure we could leave even close to on time, come on, I’m  _hungry_ , do not make me wait,” she said, and Duke gave up, because clearly, whatever he’d been trying to do here, he’d failed miserably and belaboring the point was only going to make things awkward, and the last thing he wanted to do was actually create  _stress_.  He’d… figure out the rules another time; for now, apparently, he was going to dinner.

The restaurant was small, and cramped, and Duke knew immediately by the smell that the fish was fresh and high quality, and honestly, all discomfort and confusion aside, he was kind of excited about the chance to try the food- it’d been  _years_  since he’d had really good sushi, and he missed it.  They were greeted by a tiny woman with grey hair and bright eyes, shown to a small booth in one corner, and presented with menus, and Audrey and Nathan both looked over the options with expressions that could best be described as  _dubious_.

“I don’t know what…  _any_  of this is,” Audrey said, after a minute.

“Fish,” Nathan offered helpfully, and Audrey mock-glared at him, and they both turned to him with expectation on their faces.

“So, what are we looking at?” Audrey asked, and Duke looked between the two of them, looked down at the menu, considered what he knew from  _years_  of association with Nathan and months of being the primary force reminding Audrey to eat at all, and sighed.

“Do you trust me?” he asked, because it was a lot simpler than trying to explain each item, and then trying to  _defend_  each item.

“Of course,” Audrey replied, like there was never any doubt, and Nathan shrugged his agreement, and Duke was going to not dwell on that, because it was  _just dinner_ , it was  _not_  any great grand statement, and really, he’d already known they trusted him enough to feed them.

“Okay.  Just- I’ll order for the table, it’ll be easier.”

“Oh, good,” Audrey said, closing her menu and setting it aside.  “Because seriously, I had  _no idea_  what most of that meant.”

Nathan reached across the table to set his menu down on top of Audrey’s, and Duke reminded himself, again, that it was _just dinner_ , and turned his attention to their hostess, who appeared almost immediately when the menus were closed.

Duke had a brief conversation with the hostess about the house sauces in quick and relatively competent Japanese, which seemed to delight her and left Nathan and Audrey looking entirely lost, and when he was relatively sure of what to expect in terms of intensity and balance of flavor, he ordered.  He made sure to get a wide variety of options, so that even if he guessed wrong on a few of them, there’d be  _something_  Nathan and Audrey would like, and sent the order in with the request that most of the sauces that might’ve been on or in the rolls be put to the side.

Nathan, after all, wasn’t just particularly sensitive to  _scent_.  Too much flavor could be overwhelming, and that would hardly help convince him that there was merit in this particular culinary style.  It was better if they could add as needed, at the table, rather than trying to  _remove_.

“So what did you order?” Audrey asked, when the hostess had retreated to the kitchen, and Duke shrugged.

“A little bit of a lot of things.  Call it a tasting menu.  It’ll be fun.”  Or at least, so went the theory.  The hostess returned with a teapot and three small cups, and Nathan shot Duke a dubious look, but Duke just thanked her and set about pouring.  The tea was mild, with a soft floral note- it wouldn’t distract from the dishes.

“Tea?” Nathan asked, after a moment, and Duke shrugged again.

“It was tea or sake, and we’re both driving home, remember?”

They went back to talking about the competition, Audrey asking a few questions about terms that they were using, and Duke grinned when Nathan had to admit, carefully and clearly expecting that this was going to come back to haunt him, that he  _did_  in fact know more than just a little bit about the subject, that he  _did_  actually have a passing familiarity with the guitar.

“Can’t do much with it, now,” he said, and Duke’s amusement faded at the reminder, “It’s not like shooting or driving, there’s too much variation to get by when I can’t feel it.”

“Yeah, well, as soon as we figure all that out, I expect a demonstration of that particular skill,” Audrey said, and Duke grinned again.

“Yeah, Nate, no holding out,” he teased, and Nathan narrowed his eyes, and gave just the hint of a smirk, and Duke realized just a second too late that  _maybe_  he’d made a small miscalculation.

“Sure,” Nathan said, wicked amusement in his tone.  “I can play, and  _you_  can  _sing_.”

“Wait,  _what_?” Audrey said, turning a faintly indignant look on Duke, “You  _sing_?  Why did I not know this?”

“Because I do  _not_  sing,” Duke replied, scowling at Nathan.  “Seriously, no.”

“Liar,” Nathan said, sounding entirely too amused.  “He sings.  Writes, too.”

“I hate you,” Duke said, and Nathan just laughed, easy and relaxed, and it was- surprisingly nice, actually, seeing Nathan that comfortable, seeing him that sure, that he could dismiss those words without even a flicker.

“You  _write_.  Like,  _songs_?”

“No.  I  _wrote_.  When we were  _kids_.  When the major musical style of the day was _sad angry men in flannel_.  We were  _teenagers_ , it was a  _thing_ , just-  _no_ ,” Duke said, trying to back that thought off, because  _Nathan_  had a ready excuse for not showing off his musical inclinations, Duke did  _not_ , and he was not prepared to have to have this argument with Audrey for the next month.  But Audrey was grinning now too, the same wicked amusement in her expression that had settled so comfortably in Nathan’s.

“Uh huh.  You know you’re not getting off that easy?” Audrey said, and Duke turned a pout in Nathan’s direction.

“You are  _evil_ ,” he said, and Nathan just smirked at him.  “Seriously, _evil_.  I-”

He was interrupted by the arrival of the food, and quickly changed the subject, and maybe, if he was  _very_  lucky, Audrey would just forget that whole exchange.

It was unlikely, but he could hope.

At the least, they  _were_  distracted by the food- Duke had to coax and cajole the both of them into trying things, which turned quickly into a laughing, taunting competition between Nathan and Audrey that swung back and forth between who could be more daring in what they tried, and who could more skillfully redirect Duke’s attention back to the other one and thus  _not_  have to try the more exotic options.

When the evening wound down, and they were all well-fed and satisfied and Duke had committed to memory which items they’d liked, which items they’d tolerated, and which items they absolutely were not willing to repeat, Duke picked up the check, because sushi wasn’t cheap and Nathan and Audrey hadn’t had any input into what had been ordered, so really, it was only fair.

And also, he had managed to pretty thoroughly crash their date, even if that had been the opposite of his intentions.

It was hard to feel as guilty about that as he probably should when they were so visibly  _relaxed_ , though.  It was still kind of a surprise, every time he got to see them  _happy_.  It settled something in him, left him  _content_  on a level he hadn’t experienced in years.

That was  _probably_  not a good thing, all things considered.


	5. Chapter 5

The fifth time… was an indulgence.

Haven was still  _Haven_ , after all, and every moment of peace had to be paid for twice over in blood and tears, and it had been a completely  _hellish_  week, the kind of week that came with a body count and new images to wake up in the middle of the night breathless with terror over, the kind of week that left Duke wondering  _why the hell anyone still lived in Haven_ , especially  _him_.

Of course, he knew why  _he_  was still there; his stubborn, asininely noble, selfless idiot friends, who would not just pack up and  _leave_.  No matter how many times the town nearly  _killed them both_.

Duke had lost track months ago of the number of miracles they’d conjured, the number of utterly implausible near-misses or reversals-of-fate, but each one still left its own mark, and this last…  Well.  It’d be a long damn time before he could hope to put those memories in a box next to the rest.

He’d nearly lost them both.  Again.  And he’d known for too long already that he just- couldn’t handle that.

So the fifth time, it was his idea, because sure, maybe he hadn’t figured out what the rules were yet, maybe he was still pushing further than he should, maybe he was just setting himself up for a very unpleasant crash when Audrey and Nathan  _did_  finally figure out that most people did not allow friends to tag along on dates, but whatever, he’d deal with all of that when he had to.  For now-

-for now, they were all alive and he was going to give himself one fucking day to just… let that sink in.  To try and paper over the holes that had been punched in his emotional walls when he’d thought that  _this time_ , for sure, he’d been too late.

To pretend, just for a little while, that he actually got to keep them.

He talked to Dwight, first, made damn sure there would be no Official Police Business to get in the way- Dwight, looking just as bone-weary and hollow-eyed as Duke was sure he did, just nodded and promised that he wouldn’t call them in for anything short of an actual apocalypse.  Duke made a silent note to make sure that Nathan knew to pressure Dwight into taking a goddamn day off sometime in the next week, too, because seriously, things had been bad for  _all of them_  and he fucking needed one, and moved on to the rest of his planning.

He spent two days getting the Rouge ready, getting the food ready, getting everything gathered and prepared and  _sorted_ , so that there would be an absolute minimum of work required when they actually went out.  He informed Nathan and Audrey the day before, in no uncertain terms, that they were to be at the Rouge at ten in the morning, no excuses- they looked startled, but agreed readily enough once he’d made it clear he’d already handled Dwight.

He resolutely ignored how  _entirely tempting_  it was to  _really_  stock the Rouge, so that he could take them out and  _not come back_ \- that wasn’t who they were, and Duke had reluctantly accepted that he couldn’t change that.  Had even more reluctantly accepted that he  _didn’t want to_.  No matter how difficult it made it to keep them safe.

He was waiting on the deck, trying not to look like he’d spent the last two days in a flurry of preparations, when they arrived, precisely on time.  They looked as weary and worn-down as  _everyone_  did; Audrey had dark circles under her eyes and judging by the way Nathan kept twitching at the background noise of the harbor, he hadn’t been able to relax in a few days.  Duke immediately felt better about his own inability to settle the fuck down, and it confirmed that it’d been  _totally worth it_  to put this whole thing together.

Audrey looked  _curious_  about the picked-up, tidied state of the Rouge, but she didn’t say anything, just greeted him with a smile and a hug and a cup of still-steaming coffee from the place just down the block from Nathan’s house, and he accepted all three with more relief than he wanted to admit to.  And given the week they’d had, it honestly didn’t surprise him when Nathan moved to take her place as soon as she stepped back- Duke maybe held on a minute longer than was really  _necessary_  for a casual hug hello, but neither of them called him on it.

Duke brought them below, got them settled in the kitchen with a brunch spread he was honestly proud of and mimosas all around (because it was totally acceptable to drink at ten in the morning if it was mixed with orange juice, it was like a rule), before he headed up to the helm and took them out of the harbor.  And if it was decidedly satisfying that it only took about ten minutes for Audrey and Nathan to abandon the comfort of the kitchen and the lure of the food to come loiter in the doorway of the cabin for no other reason than to make small talk while he ran the boat, well, he didn’t have to say so.

He wasn’t taking them far, anyway- he was too mindful of the fact that it was  _still Haven_ , and while Dwight had promised to only call in the event of apocalypse, that wasn’t actually an  _impossibility_  in their world.  The cove he brought them to was sheltered and private, one he used extensively for meets with the kind of people he didn’t want to be  _seen_ meeting with, but it was only about a half an hour outside of town, which was the best compromise he could come up with between actual privacy and still being close enough to respond to an emergency.

“So what are we doing, exactly?” Audrey asked, once Duke had gotten the Rouge anchored.

“Well, now, that depends on you two,” Duke replied, shrugging easily, still not willing to cop to the amount of effort he’d actually put into planning things.  “You want to head off-ship, there’s a trail not far that leads up to the point, good views, not bad for trying to spot wildlife, we can pack lunch and make it a picnic.  You want to stay here, we’ve got movies for the afternoon, cards for the evening, and I guarantee you the best dinner you’ve had in months.”

“ _You_  got movies,” Nathan said, sounding decidedly disbelieving.  “I didn’t think you even had a TV.”

“I  _have_  a TV,” Duke replied, frowning.  “It just wasn’t, y’know, hooked up to anything.  Now it is.”

“You set up your TV so we could watch movies?” Audrey asked, and she sounded entirely more impressed by that than the accomplishment actually warranted.  “Clearly we should be taking advantage of this.  Besides, we’ve been on our feet all week, I think we’ve earned a day to be lazy.”

“ _What_  movies?” Nathan asked, still clearly much less confident in Duke’s ability to plan a movie day than Audrey was, and Duke would be more offended by that if Nathan hadn’t actually heard Duke’s complaints about the overwhelming presence of television media in everyday life more than once.

“Good movies,” Duke replied, just to be difficult, and he was rewarded by Nathan’s amused frown, an entirely different class of expression than his annoyed frown.

“And you would know that  _how_?”

“Look, just because I don’t spend  _huge chunks of my very valuable time_  on film and television does not mean I don’t know what’s good,” Duke said, and Audrey smiled wryly and shook her head.

“Why don’t we just go  _look_?” she said, nudging Nathan rather pointedly.  “I mean, seriously, what’re you worried about?”

“He thinks being  _selective_  means I don’t have a grasp of pop culture,” Duke said, with a grin.  “He’s  _wrong_ , for the record, I keep up, I just don’t usually  _indulge_.  But we’re indulging today, so c’mon, downstairs, I didn’t set up an entertainment system I’m not gonna use for nothing.”

“You really didn’t have to-” Audrey started, and Duke stopped her by giving her a gentle push toward the ladder.

“Audrey.  It was nothing, seriously, it’s not a big deal,” he lied, and he caught the look Nathan sent in his direction- he clearly knew that it was more than  _nothing_ , but Nathan didn’t say anything more, just followed after.  Duke led them down to a room off the galley that  _had_  been nothing but a spare bedroom, and tried very hard to convey that it was  _absolutely totally a casual thing_  that it was now very definitely an entertainment room, complete with furniture he  _definitely_  hadn’t owned two days ago.

He may have gone just a  _little_  overboard, setting things up, but he was  _pretty_  sure it was a healthier coping mechanism than just doubling how much he drank, so whatever.  Audrey turned like she was going to say something, but Nathan reached out, caught her around the waist and distracted her long enough to beat her to the punch.

“This proves nothing,” he said, and Duke appreciated that he’d clearly caught that Duke was a little uncertain about the effort expended, and was deliberately not making a big deal out of it.  “Not convinced until I see the titles you picked.”

“Yeah, yeah, ye of little faith,” Duke said, drifting over to the cabinet he’d bolted in under where the television hung on the wall, pulling out a couple of cases and tossing them in Nathan’s direction.  Nathan managed to catch them, barely, and Duke  _enjoyed_  the look of reluctant approval that stole across his face.  “I  _told you_ , being selective doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“This one first!” Audrey declared, pulling one of the cases out of Nathan’s hands, expression going bright and pleased.  She crossed over from where Nathan was standing to push the case into Duke’s hands, and Duke looked at it, back up at her, and shook his head.

“Yeah, no.  We’re only doing this one first if you don’t plan to watch the second one at all- I am  _not_  watching two without having four as a follow-up.  Not gonna happen.”

“We’re not watching them  _out of order_ ,” Nathan added, sounding utterly scandalized.

“But this one has  _whales_ ,” Audrey said.  “And the first one was terrible, we’re not watching the first one  _period_.”

“I didn’t say that we  _should_ ,” Nathan said, grimacing.  “But if you want to watch a series, we need to go in  _order_.”

“…Seriously, two four six, if we’re doing this,” Duke said, and Audrey pouted at him, and that should  _not_  be a compelling argument, damnit.

“You only bought the even numbers, didn’t you,” Nathan said, with an entirely disgruntled sound that wasn’t  _quite_  a sigh.

“I only bought  _the good ones_ ,” Duke countered.  “Don’t look so damn scandalized,  _everyone_  knows the odd ones sucked.”

“You want to go straight from  _Wrath of Khan_  to  _The Voyage Home_ , and I’m supposed to  _not_  be upset by that?”

“Uh, I  _absolutely_  want to go straight from  _Wrath of Khan_  to  _The Voyage Home_ ,” Duke said, frowning, “ _The Search for Spock_  is a hundred and five minutes of  _unnecessary drama_  to get to the point where they’ve fixed the end of  _Khan_ , and the  _last_  thing we need is more unnecessary drama.”

“Guys, we have all clearly seen  _all of these movies_ , why can’t we just watch  _Voyage Home_  first?” Audrey asked, rolling her eyes.  “Come on, it’s not like it’s going to spoil the plot if we go back and watch  _Khan_ after.”

“You do not  _go backwards_  watching a series-” Nathan started, and Duke interrupted, mostly without meaning anything by it.

“Because I am  _not_  watching the end of  _Khan_  without going  _directly_  into time-travel-buddy-movie shenanigans,” he said, giving Audrey a pointed look.  “No.  Not happening.  If you want to watch  _Voyage Home_ first, we pick something completely different to follow up.”

“But-”

“Let it go, Parker,” Nathan said, eyes narrow, and Audrey turned, looked like she was going to argue, and fell silent at whatever extra level she caught in Nathan’s expression.  “Two four six is fine with me, or we can do four and something else.”

“Ugh,  _fine_ , we’ll go in  _order_ ,” Audrey said, with a heavy sigh.  “You are both  _boring_.”

“Audrey.  Please.  Consider, for just a minute, our lives- give us this  _one_  arena to be boring in, okay?” Duke replied, shaking his head.  “Nate, you got this?  I should go get the snacks and drinks.”

“You  _just_  fed us,” Nathan pointed out, and Duke shrugged.

“And you two routinely skip meals when you’re working, it’s not gonna kill you to eat too much today.  Indulging, remember?”

“It’s-”

“Nathan, stop talking now, I want snacks,” Audrey said, looking amused and also possibly covetous, there was definitely possibly coveting happening, and at the very least, Duke could be pretty sure they’d keep coming around for the food.

He could live with that.

Duke headed into the kitchen, trusting Nathan to figure out the newly-assembled entertainment system, and Audrey followed him, clearly intent on helping carry things- and on getting first pick of the snacks, but he wasn’t going to call her on it.

“You know,” she started, leaning up against the counter as Duke pulled cold drinks out of the fridge,  “I don’t think I’ve taken a whole day to just  _relax_  since- actually, I don’t think  _I’ve_  ever taken a whole day to just relax.”

“Figured we could all use one,” Duke said, setting the drinks down, and giving her a considering look.  “And look…  Whatever happens, from here, we maybe have to accept that there isn’t an  _after_.  Things are different now, we don’t have a countdown, here.  Which means, if this is just-  _life_ , now?  If this is reality?  You need to know how to take a break, now and again.”

“You know I can’t accept that.  That we’re not gonna find a way to fix all this.  There has to be a way, we just- haven’t gotten there yet,” Audrey said, frowning.

“Yeah, I know.  Not giving up, just saying.  You get to have a real life, Audrey, and that includes actual days off.  And  _that_ ,” he said, pushing the armful of cold drinks at her, “is enough of that kind of talk for today.  Fun only, now go bring these in.”

“Bossy,” Audrey said, but she was smiling, and she gathered up the drinks and headed back to the entertainment room.  Duke paused just a moment to watch her go, let himself imagine for just a minute what it would be like if this weren’t  _once_ , if he got to keep this, Audrey helping in the kitchen while Nathan organized the entertainment, relaxed and comfortable and  _belonging_ , and then he put the thought aside and went back to gathering up the snacks.  There was  _indulging_ , after all, and  _torturing himself_ , and he planned to stay on the  _indulging_  side of the line today.

Nathan had the movie ready to go, when he stepped back inside, and he set the sizable pile of snacks down on the low coffee table in front of the new, squishy couch.  Audrey immediately moved to investigate what he’d brought in, claiming the bowl of salted-caramel-dark-chocolate popcorn with a sound of triumph.  Nathan rolled his eyes, but he was hiding a smile, and he drifted into Duke’s space to look over what was left as Audrey tossed herself down on the couch and wriggled into a comfortable position in the middle of the cushions.  Duke reached up, putting a hand on Nathan’s shoulder, not for any purpose other than because he wanted to, because he was trying to re-ground himself, reassure himself that everything was  _fine_ , today, and Nathan reached up absently to cover Duke’s hand with his own- easy and sure and  _automatic_ , like it didn’t matter that he couldn’t feel it and was barely looking.

It was settling and unsettling all at once, and Duke really had no idea what to do with that, so he just turned his hand enough to give Nathan’s fingers a careful squeeze and tried to act like he knew what the hell he was doing.  Nathan stole a plate of cookies- mint chocolate, and Duke had had a hell of a time reverse engineering those, but he’d figured it out eventually and he knew Nathan never passed them up- and went to sit down next to Audrey, and Duke took the more traditional popcorn and settled down on Audrey’s other side.  Nathan had claimed the remotes in the course of getting everything set up, and got the movie started, and Duke forced himself to  _relax_ , to let go of everything  _outside_  the room and focus on the movie and the food and the two people, whole and healthy, sitting in easy reach.

Audrey stretched out, wriggled around, and was sprawled out across him and Nathan before Uhura even finished relating the distress call to Saavik, and Duke flicked a glance sideways, trying to assess Nathan’s reaction; Nathan just shifted slightly so that he could run his fingers through Audrey’s hair, and didn’t seem at all concerned about Audrey’s legs in Duke’s lap.

It’d been a hell of a goddamn week; Duke wasn’t going to worry about it.  Not today.

For a few minutes, they were mostly quiet, talking only when someone wanted to trade out their snacks for something else, but by the time Khan had made his appearance on screen, Audrey had started mumbling lines along with the movie, and that was all the encouragement Nathan and Duke required before they were doing the same.  Nathan did give Duke one very surprised look, and Duke rolled his eyes.

“I told you, I’m  _selective_ , that doesn’t mean I don’t watch good movies,” he defended, before Audrey dug her heel into his thigh in a very clear  _shut up if you’re not on script_ , and Duke winced and gave her a wounded look before catching her foot between his hands and pressing his knuckles gently into the arch, an easy rolling motion that won a decidedly startled, decidedly  _pleased_  gasp from her.  She shifted around enough to make both feet decidedly available, and Duke took the hint and kept going, working the tension out bit by bit.

It was going fine until midway through the third act, as the battle in the nebula raged.  Duke had  _known_  what was coming, could quote half the damn movie from memory, had raised the fuss he’d kicked up over watching in order  _specifically_  because he knew he was going to need the emotional lift of the much-lighter fourth film, but he  _hadn’t_  counted on his immediate,  _visceral_  response to the  _noble heroics_.  

He moved Audrey’s feet with an apologetic pat, and stood up, grabbing a couple of the empty bowls as an excuse- Audrey made a curious sound, and he smiled and shook his head, waved off the inquiry without actually explaining, before beating a hasty retreat to the kitchen.  He dropped the empty bowls in the sink, and caught the edge of the counter to steady his shaking hands, trying to ground himself.  He could handle this, it wasn’t the first time he’d had a small freakout in the wake of the ridiculous bullshit that was their lives now, he could get his shit together before anyone noticed.

…Or not.  Footfalls, and a hand on his back, resting careful between his shoulder blades, and Duke pushed away from the counter, turned to give Nathan an easy smile, still trying to cover, trying to keep things light and easy.

“Hey.  You didn’t need to get up, I can handle moving a couple of dishes,” he said, and Nathan just  _looked_  at him, quietly unimpressed, and Duke sighed.  “I’m fine, Nate.  Seriously.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yeah, well.  Watched that scene play out once this week, it’s hitting a little harder than I thought it would.  It’s nothing, I’m  _fine_.”

“Hey.  We’re all still standing,” Nathan said, voice low, all earnest seriousness.  “Duke.  We’re all still here.”

“ _Barely_ ,” Duke said, his voice just as low and far sharper.  “And I’ve been pushing my luck for a living for years, Nate, I’m  _very_  familiar with skating by on the bare edge, but this is getting ridiculous.”

“There’s always risks,” Nathan said, shrugging, and Duke  _glared_.

“There’s  _risks_  and there’s the shit you pulled this week, and they are not the same things,” Duke said.  “How many times, exactly, do you plan on making us have to  _raise you from the dead_?”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Nathan argued, and Duke considered whether or not it was acceptable to punch him.   _Probably_  not, all things considered, but it was  _very tempting_.

“Nathan.  If you don’t have a heartbeat, it is  _exactly that bad_.  Being  _turned to stone_  does not actually negate that fact.”

“Duke.   _We’re all still standing_.  All of us.  We handled it.”

“…Right,” Duke said, biting the word out, moving to turn away, but Nathan stopped him, caught his arm in a grip that would probably leave marks to keep him in place.

“You know it’s not going to get easier, not until we fix this?”

“Amazingly, I had figured that one out on my own,” Duke said.  “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“None of us like it,” Nathan said, the words soft.  “But things would’ve gone differently, you weren’t there.”

“Jesus, Nate, I’m  _stressed_ , I’m not walking away,” Duke said, catching on, and giving Nathan a wounded look.  “I can handle this, I’m not- I were gonna run, I’d have done it a long time ago.  You two need someone to watch your backs.”

“Long as you know that,” Nathan said, with a hint of a smile, and it was a rare admission, from him, which didn’t actually change how much Duke would prefer  _none_  of them be risking their lives on a routine basis, but it was still a little bit mollifying.

“Yeah, yeah.  You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?  Used to be I just had to worry about the occasional pissed-off crook,” Duke grumbled, and Nathan let go of his arm, some of the tension fading.

“You don’t come back in and sit down, you’re gonna have  _Audrey_  to worry about,” Nathan warned, gentle teasing in his tone, and Duke pulled a face and rolled out his shoulders.

“Much scarier,” he agreed.  “Fine, c’mon, Mr. Spock, let’s go finish the movie.”

“ _Seriously_?” Nathan asked, expression shifting immediately to mock-offense, and Duke laughed, gave Nathan a wide, easy smile.

“Well you sure as hell aren’t Kirk,” he said, with a quirk of his eyebrow.  “Pretty sure the shoe fits.  Rational, logical,  _stiff_ -”

“And that makes  _you_  Kirk?” Nathan scoffed, and Duke laughed again.

“Hell no.  If  _anyone_  here is Kirk, it’s  _Audrey_.  I’m the McCoy in this scenario, thank you very much.   _Someone_  has to tag along after you two  _intrepid idiots_  and patch you up when you get into trouble.”

“…” Nathan opened his mouth to argue, considered, and closed his mouth again, brows drawing down as he thought.  He glanced in the direction of the entertainment room, and Duke nodded.

“Yeah, you know I’m right,” he said, and Nathan continued to look thoughtful.

“She  _does_  occasionally take a slightly…  _bold_  approach to things,” he admitted, after a moment, and Duke was pretty sure he’d made his point.

“C’mon,” Duke said again, nudging Nathan with his shoulder and heading back out of the kitchen.  Nathan kept pace, and Audrey looked up immediately when they stepped back inside, eyes full of questions.  “Sorry, go ahead and start it up again,” Duke said, which wasn’t an answer for any of them, but he sat down just a little closer than he’d been before, and Nathan settled back into his spot, and Audrey resettled herself the other way around, curling her feet in Nathan’s lap and making herself comfortable using Duke as a pillow.  When she was settled, she turned the movie back on, and Duke let one hand rest on her shoulder, fingers curved protectively along the line of her collarbone.

He’d keep pushing his luck, as long as he had to.  However long they needed him to watch their backs.

Audrey cried unapologetically through the last twenty minutes of the movie, and Duke was pretty sure it wasn’t half as much about the story on the screen as it was about  _everything else_ , but he sure as hell wasn’t going to call her on it, and Nathan just reached over to run his hand up and down her back, and when the movie was finished, there was just a little less tension in the air.

It was mutually agreed that they needed a quick break, the three of them heading up onto the deck to stretch and stand in the sunlight; it was a cool, crisp day, just warm enough in the direct light to be  _comfortable_.

They talked idly for a few minutes, about nothing in particular, until Audrey looked a little more alert and Duke thought he could manage another long stretch sitting down- he really wasn’t very good at that, which was part of why he didn’t really do movies all that often.  Nathan helped him gather up the second round of drinks and rolled his eyes at the emergence of  _new_  snacks, and Duke pretended not to see him surreptitiously steal one of the chocolate-dipped-cherries off the tray.

The next movie was much less of a challenge to sit through, and was accompanied by much more laughter and color commentary, and Duke wasn’t entirely sure how Audrey managed it but by three quarters of the way in, she’d managed to not just sprawl out over Duke’s lap, but to also pull Nathan down so that  _he_  was lying half in  _her_  lap and thus partially on Duke as well.  It was decidedly less awkward than it could’ve been, and Duke was kind of disappointed when the movie ended and they needed to get up again.

So maybe there were  _some_  advantages to staying in and watching TV all day.

Nathan insisted that they wait at least a little while longer before dinner, which Duke found vaguely suspicious since Nathan couldn’t  _tell_  if he was hungry or not, but even he had to admit that they could  _probably_ benefit from a little bit of a gap between the snacks and their actual meal.  So they stretched out around the kitchen table, and Duke brought out cards and poker chips- it was a  _friendly_  game, he did not want any of them putting actual money on it- and they played a few hands, the conversation wandering comfortably from subject to subject.

Duke had his attention on the game, because Nathan was  _tricky_  and could bluff like no one’s business, and even  _years_  of translating his subtle expressions was utterly useless when he was actually  _trying_  to be unreadable, when Audrey sat back and frowned thoughtfully.

“Music,” she announced, and Duke frowned and dropped a red chip into the pot before he looked up.

“What?”

“Music,” Audrey repeated.  “You have to have a radio around somewhere, right?”

“…Yeah, of course,” Duke said, setting his cards face-down and standing up.  “You want anything specific, or just ‘music’?”

“Just pick something,” Audrey said, dropping two red chips into the pot, and Nathan matched her raise, and Duke scowled- he was  _pretty_  sure Nathan was bluffing, but he couldn’t be certain.

“You both suck, and I fold,” he commented, heading over to the stereo in the corner, and flipping it on, familiar music filling the air.  Nathan and Audrey showed their hands, Nathan collected his winnings, and Duke congratulated himself on saving a single red chip, because Nathan hadn’t been bluffing.

They played a few more hands, until Duke and Audrey were sitting on  _substantially_  smaller piles of chips than they’d started with, and Nathan looked decidedly  _smug_ , before Duke tossed his cards down in frustration.

“ _How_.  How do you always- you know what, no, I don’t want to know, no matter what the answer is it’s just gonna annoy me,  _why_  do I keep playing poker with you?  I swear, I don’t think I’ve come out ahead in a game with you since you were in  _school_.”

“You’re still ahead of Parker,” Nathan pointed out, which was true, and absolutely  _no_  comfort whatsoever.

“Gee, thanks,” Audrey said, with a wry smile.

“Eventually I will figure out how you do this,” Duke threatened, standing up.  “Eventually.  And I will make up for the last  _fifteen years_.”

“What, you’re giving up already?” Nathan said, grinning, and Duke scowled at him.

“ _Yes_.  I am going to go cook dinner.  Audrey, you gonna keep letting him take all your chips, or do you want to give me a hand and have a glass of wine and leave him here to enjoy his ill-gotten gains?”

“Wine, please,” Audrey said, standing up and wrinkling her nose at Nathan.  “And I’m pretty sure he’s right and you’re cheating, I just haven’t figured out how yet.”

“Or you’re both just not as good at this game as you think you are,” Nathan returned, with a slow, easy smirk, and Duke very quickly focused his attention on opening a bottle of wine, because he needed the distraction.

“You ever get tired of being a cop, we’ll get you into one of those stupid tournaments on TV, you’ll make a killing,” Duke said, trying to sound more annoyed than he actually was.  He poured three glasses of wine, and handed one off to Audrey, who was hovering at his shoulder.  “Here.”

“What do you want me to do?” Audrey asked, leaning back against the counter, and Duke grinned at her.

“Stand there and look elegant and decorative,” he said, and he totally deserved the elbow to the ribs, he could admit that.  “Ouch.  Seriously, though, I’ve got this, you don’t actually have to help.”

“You sure?” she asked, though she was already settling into her space more comfortably.

“I’m sure,” Duke said, as Nathan came over to claim the third wineglass and lean next to Audrey, and it made things a little cramped, but not in a bad way.  Duke could deal with the two of them taking up space in his kitchen, could deal with having to work around them.

Kind of enjoyed it, not that he was going to say as much.

Besides, there wasn’t much work to be done- he’d done all the heavy lifting in terms of prep yesterday, all he really needed to do was put a few things together and toss them in the oven for a few minutes.  Which, admittedly, would’ve been easier without Audrey trying to steal tastes of everything every time he turned around, but it was charming enough that he wasn’t going to complain.  He did make them clear the table of their poker game, and help carry things out, and it was all decidedly  _cozy_ , comfortable and easy.

They ate, and drank some more, and pulled out the cards again once the food had been cleared away; none of them really felt like settling in for another movie, but no one seemed to be in any particular hurry to get back to town, either, and Duke was perfectly happy to let the evening run as long as they wanted it to.  As long as he could get away with.  Audrey and Duke  _might’ve_  started colluding, trying to actually put a dent in Nathan’s winnings- which worked for about two hands before Nathan caught on and immediately began to trounce them again, and Duke was  _very sure_  that shouldn’t be possible, but he still couldn’t figure out  _how_  Nathan was doing it- and they were well past the first couple bottles of wine when something familiar came on the radio and Nathan paused in the middle of gathering his chips.

“Know this one,” he said, listening, and Duke scoffed and shuffled the deck.

“You  _should_ , you made us practice it enough,” Duke said, starting to deal.

“It’s a good one,” Nathan said, his hands still blocking Duke from actually dealing properly, and Duke tapped his wrist pointedly.

“Yeah, it is, you gonna take your chips?” Duke asked, and Nathan looked down, resumed gathering up his winnings, but his attention was clearly still on the music.

“Wait, wait,  _made you practice_?” Audrey asked.  “As in, the two of you, at the same time?”

“…Yeah,” Duke replied, with an uncomfortable shrug.  “Hard to play at being a band if you don’t actually practice at the same time.”

“No, okay, neither of you said  _anything_  about being in a band together,” Audrey said, looking delighted, and Duke blinked, because he’d thought that had been fairly well  _implied_ , but apparently he was wrong.

“Wasn’t exactly a  _band_ ,” Nathan said, with his own uneasy shrug.  “Need more than two people for that.”

“Oh my God, it was just the two of you?” Audrey asked, and her delighted look was only growing, and Duke was pretty sure he should be wary of that.

“We were just messing around,” Duke said, which wasn’t an  _entirely_ fair assessment of their level of skill or determination, but it’d all been a long time ago.  “Wasn’t like we were gonna make anything of it.”

“Miss it, sometimes,” Nathan said, the admission  _quiet_ , almost fragile, and Duke went very still, because they’d made up a lot of ground, last few months, but that was pushing into territory that carried a lot of baggage with it.  “Being able to play, being- we weren’t  _bad_.”

“No, we weren’t,” Duke acknowledged, carefully,  _cautiously_ , not entirely sure what Nathan was doing, not entirely sure which way to jump.

“You picked up a few things, while you were- you can play, now?” Nathan asked, not quite looking at Duke, picking at the edges of the cards in front of him.

“Little bit, yeah.  Not like you could, but I get by.”

“Would you?”  Honestly, the question took Duke off-guard, though it probably shouldn’t’ve; Nathan looked as  _nervous_  as Nathan ever did, still not meeting Duke’s eyes, and Audrey was watching Nathan now, expression slightly perplexed.

“Nate-”

“Please,” Nathan said, soft, almost too soft, his voice barely carrying even the slight distance across the table, and he glanced up, a single brief look, and Duke’s objections died in his throat.

Nathan, after all, rarely asked for the things he wanted, rarely asked for anything for himself.  And it was such a small thing.

“…Yeah, okay,” Duke said, pushing back from the table.  “Lemmie just- yeah.”  He turned away, not quite quickly enough to miss Audrey reaching out to cover Nathan’s hand with hers, and he ducked his head and headed down the hallway, not sure he wanted to overhear Audrey’s questions, not sure he wanted to hear Nathan’s answers.  Not sure what this was about, but sure it wasn’t something he wanted to fight over.

It took a minute, to figure out exactly where he’d stowed his guitar, to check it over, and he maybe delayed a little longer than he had to, but his heart was pounding in his chest and he needed the time to steady his nerves.  Which was  _ridiculous_ , it was Nathan and Audrey, neither one of them was going to expect a flawless performance and he didn’t need to impress them  _anyway_ , there was no goddamn reason for him to be nervous.

No reason beside the quiet intensity in the way Nathan had asked.

Which he was not going to think about.

By the time he made his way back up to the kitchen, Audrey was leaning up against Nathan’s side, comfortable and easy, and Nathan had relaxed some, and Duke put on a smile and settled himself down and tried to pretend his hands were steady.

“Any requests?” he asked, and immediately thought the better of it at Audrey’s expression- he cut her off before she could do more than open her mouth.  “And  _no_ , I do not know anything by Justin Timberlake.”

Audrey made a face at him, and Nathan just shook his head.

“What do you know?”

And wonderful, it was up to him, because of course Nathan didn’t actually know what Duke had learned while he was gone, didn’t have any idea what he could ask for, and Duke huffed a sigh and let his fingers fall into place, traced a chord and then another as he considered.

And then he started to play, picking something  _simple_ , something  _easy_ , something he could manage in his sleep- something he couldn’t possibly screw up while he was trying to settle himself down.  Audrey smiled and Nathan smirked and gave him a  _what, really_  look, and Duke kept his attention on what he was doing, but he gave a faint shrug anyway, because  _yeah, really_ , it was everybody’s fallback for a  _reason_.

He didn’t really think about it, didn’t really draw a distinction between Nathan asking him to  _play_  and either of them asking him to sing, he just started in on the lyrics when they were supposed to be there.

“Today,” he started, and at least his voice was steady, “is gonna be the day, they’re gonna throw it back to you…  By now, you should’ve somehow, realized what you’ve gotta do, I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do, about you now…”

It was simple, and familiar, and hardly anything particularly impressive, but Audrey’s smile just  _grew_ , and Nathan’s amused smirk went a little softer, and Duke’s voice only caught a little when he rolled through, “and there are many things I’d like to say to you, but I don’t know how.”

If they noticed, they didn’t mention it.

He steadied, kept going, closed the song, softening the last few repetitions of “you’re gonna be the one that saves me” and letting the last few notes hang for a moment.  A quick glance up made it clear neither Audrey nor Nathan was prepared to offer a suggestion- and he was  _not_  going to try and interpret those looks- and he thought for a second and picked something else, not venturing too far from the  _relatively predictable_  options, the  _everyone knows these_  options, the  _read nothing into this_  options.

Really, that was totally what he was doing.

“We’ll do it all, everything, on our own,” he started, “we don’t need, anything, or anyone.”  And he kept his eyes down, his attention on the music, on remembering the way the notes flowed, because to be fair he didn’t exactly do this often, and it’d been a little while, and he was absolutely not just avoiding their eyes.

He played it through, and couldn’t even  _pretend_  to himself that he hadn’t put a little more in it than he’d planned to, a little more than he  _should_ , and he didn’t  _pause_  at the end, didn’t provide any opportunity for commentary, didn’t  _dare_.  As accomplished a liar as he was, he’d never managed to figure out how to keep  _himself_  out of whatever he sang- which was part of why he  _generally didn’t_ , generally kept it to meaningless gatherings- and he needed something  _decidedly less risky_.

Even with his eyes down and his attention on the guitar, he still caught Nathan’s tiny shift forward when he moved immediately from the end of the second song to the beginning of the third, and he allowed himself a faint trace of a smile, because this one they’d practiced.

And it was a little strange, taking both parts with Nathan  _watching_ , but they’d- they’d figure shit out, eventually, and then he’d be able to hand off half of it.

And wasn’t  _that_  an optimistic thought.

“Oh, life, is bigger, it’s bigger than you and you are not me, the lengths that I will go to, the distance in your eyes, oh no I’ve said too much, I set it up…”

He took a breath, and damn near fumbled the next words, because Nathan beat him to them, came in a half-beat before he did, and his voice was low and a little rough,  _out of practice_ , but not entirely unfamiliar, and definitely not  _unwelcome_.

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion-” and it took a the first line before they were actually in sync, actually matched, but once they did, Nathan’s voice picked up confidence and Duke got the words back in order, and for an unsettling moment, Duke lost track of the last seventeen years and every bad thing in them.  It was only a moment, only a flicker, and he pushed it aside, because there was no going back, but maybe they actually did stand a chance of going  _forward_.

Nathan finished the song out with him, and Duke let himself look up, let himself flash a smile.

“Nice,” he said, approval in his tone.

“Know that one,” Nathan said, as though that wasn’t  _entirely evident_ , and Duke chuckled and shook his head.

“Okay, you with me on this next one?” he asked, and Nathan lifted one shoulder, not a full shrug, just enough to convey  _sure_.

“One I know, yeah,” he said, and Duke shook his head.

“You know it,” he said, and started to play, and Nathan gave Duke a  _look_ , sighed and picked up as Duke did.

“Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be,” they sang, Duke smirking at Nathan and Nathan looking entirely put upon, “as a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy; take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don’t be late; take a rest, as a friend, as an old memory, yeah-”

Duke paused at the end of that one, took a drink and considered, before he started again, something different, something decidedly softer than R.E.M. or Nirvana, something decidedly more  _modern_.

Nathan frowned, gave a minute shake of his head, and Duke had to wonder how the hell Nathan had managed  _not_  to hear this one enough to at least make a stab at it, but that was fine, Duke  _more_  than had this covered.

“When you try your best, but you don’t succeed,” he started, and a moment later, he wasn’t singing alone; Audrey, sounding slightly uncertain, joined in.

“When you get what you want, but not what you need,” they both sang, and Duke gave her a smile, slow and encouraging.  She smiled back, still sounding a little uncertain as they continued, “when you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep, stuck in reverse…”

Nathan shifted, sliding one hand forward to catch Audrey’s, and Duke could see the reassuring squeeze before he laced their fingers together, and Audrey smiled again, and sounded a little more  _sure_.

“And tears come streaming down your face, when you lose something you can’t replace, when you love someone and it goes to waste, could it be worse?”  Duke quieted his voice, let Audrey’s come forward, hearing the faint tremble-  _emotion_ , not nerves- and kept playing, sang only loud enough that Audrey could tell she wasn’t singing  _alone_ , but let her carry the song.

“Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try… to fix you.”

And  _that_  was just painfully appropriate all around; Duke’s smile took on an amused edge, and he shook his head as he continued to play, flicking a quick glance at Nathan only to find the same warm fondness on his face as he gazed at Audrey.  Which, really, it was damned hard  _not_  to be fond of Audrey, so.

“You were holding out on us,” Duke said, when the song was done.  “You didn’t tell us  _you_  could sing.”

“I wasn’t holding out on you, you didn’t  _ask_ ,” Audrey replied tartly, leaning back against Nathan.  “And now you know.”

“Yes we do,” Duke agreed, “and I am going to  _remember_  that for later.”

Audrey stuck her tongue out at him, amused and playful, and Duke laughed and started another song.  He played through a few more, Nathan accompanying some, Audrey accompanying one or two others, a few on his own- the first time he tried to beg off, they pouted and cajoled and Duke gave in with pitifully little resistance.  Another half a dozen, though, and he was definitely feeling it, he hadn’t worked his voice like this in a long time, he really did need to call it.

“No, okay, c’mon, seriously, I need a break,” he said, trying very hard  _not_  to let Audrey’s adorably disappointed expression hit home.  “If I promise we can do this again sometime will you stop  _pouting_  at me?”

“…One more,” Audrey implored, still definitely pouting at him, and Duke looked to Nathan for help, and Nathan just smiled.

“One more,” he seconded, and Duke sighed.

“You two are  _difficult_ ,” he said, and they were clearly unbothered by his assessment.  “Fine.   _One_  more.  Then, seriously, I need to stop.”

“But we can do this again?” Audrey pressed.

“Yes,” he said, and Audrey sat back and at least stopped making imploring faces at him, which at this point he was taking as a win.

He leaned back, considered, and flashed an amused smile, making a decision and starting to play, just to hear Nathan groan- he grinned when Nathan rolled his eyes, barely managing not to laugh at him.

“When you’re weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes I’ll dry them all, I’m on your side; when times get rough, and friends just can’t be found, like a bridge over troubled water, I’ll lay me down.”  And it was  _not_  his best performance; he was struggling not to laugh at Nathan’s exasperation, and he couldn’t keep his voice steady, but it didn’t matter, he wasn’t trying to impress.  Audrey looked confused, but was clearly picking up on his amusement, turning to fix Nathan with a questioning look.

Nathan just shook his head and rolled his eyes again, and Duke chuckled and continued, because Nathan looked like  _he_ was having trouble not laughing, now, and that was still rare enough to be valuable.

When he’d sung the song all the way through, and Nathan was laughing wryly, Duke set his guitar aside.  Nathan detangled himself from Audrey and stood up, moving around the table to look over the slightly worn instrument, fingers trailing over the wood, and Duke could see the flicker of  _loss_  in his expression- Duke wondered why Nathan had asked Duke to play, when it clearly  _bothered_  him that he currently couldn’t.  But that was not the kind of question that was going to go anywhere good, so Duke didn’t ask, and a moment later Nathan put on a game smile and gave Duke a wry look.

“ _Had_  to learn that one?”

“Learned it special, just for you,” Duke agreed, grinning, which was absolutely and entirely true; he’d never quite understood  _why_  Garland, Vince, and Dave had all been so damn fond of it, but they  _had_ , which meant Nathan had heard it a  _lot_  more than he’d wanted to, growing up.  And sure, at the time Duke had picked it up, he’d had absolutely no reason to think he’d ever have the  _opportunity_  to taunt Nathan with it, but he’d still put in the effort, just in case.

He liked to be prepared for all eventualities.

“You’re an ass,” Nathan said, shaking his head, and it was affectionate and amused, and Duke just reached out and clapped Nathan on the shoulder.

“Have to keep myself entertained somehow,” he said, with an easy smile.  “Who wants dessert?”

“How have you not run out of food yet?” Nathan asked, looking decidedly disbelieving, and Duke shrugged.

“Thorough planning,” he said, heading toward the fridge.  “Seriously, though.  Chocolate-pomegranate mousse with a sweet brandy sauce, made from scratch, who wants some?”

“You are going to have to  _roll_  us off this boat,” Audrey laughed.

“Is that a no?” Duke asked, and Audrey gave him an incredulous look.

“Of course it’s not a no, give it,” she said, making a demanding, impatient motion from where she was still sitting at the table, and he couldn’t help but laugh, was pretty sure that was her intention, was pretty sure he was okay with that.

“As the lady requests,” he said, gathering up three spoons and taking the elegant brandy snifters out of the fridge, delivering them to the table with just a hint of a flourish.  “Though while we’re on the subject…  Suppose I should be getting us back, it’s  _late_.”

Nathan and Audrey exchanged a glance, and he was pretty sure there was actual reluctance in it, some hint of  _disappointment_  at the idea.  Which, to be fair, he’d have been perfectly happy to stay right where they were, or set sail for whichever horizon they preferred, but they had work in the morning and Duke really  _should_  spend at least part of the day at the Gull, and none of that would be made easier by dragging his heels further over returning them to town.  No matter how little he actually wanted to return them to town.

But this was just an indulgence; this wasn’t his to have.  Not really.

It was a harder thought, in the wake of the day’s comfortable closeness, in the wake of seeing the tension slowly fade out of the both of them, in the wake of movies and cards and songs, in the wake of having their attention entirely to himself for the whole day.  He probably should’ve known better.

Audrey sighed, and Nathan covered her hand with his, and managed a fairly believable unconcerned shrug.

“Work in the morning,” he said, as though Audrey  _needed_  the explanation- as though Audrey wasn’t just as much a workaholic as Nathan, just as eager to  _show up_  every day as he was.

“Yeah, I know.  Just- this was  _nice_ ,” she said, turning to give Duke a gentle,  _hopeful_  kind of smile, and he had no idea what to do with that, had no idea what she was asking him for.

“Yeah, well, days off do sometimes work out that way,” he said, giving her an easy smile in return.  “Take them more often.”

“…Yeah.  Yeah, we’ll have to do that,” she said, and there was still something in her voice, something in her expression, that made him think he was missing something, but he didn’t know what.

Whatever it was, he’d probably find out eventually.  She wasn’t usually  _subtle_  in telling him when she needed something.

They lingered over the desserts more than was warranted, but eventually there was really no pretending there was anything left to be scraped from the cups, and Duke stood up and headed out onto the deck to prepare the Rouge for the trip home.

It was smooth sailing back, and when they were back at the familiar slip, Duke used the excuse of tying up to draw up a little distance, to put himself together enough that he could watch them go with his usual easy smile.  He was pretty sure Nathan, at least, caught that it wasn’t as  _easy_  as he was pretending, but he didn’t say anything; just hesitated a moment longer than he needed to, asking whether Duke would be around in the morning.

Duke demurred, because he  _really_  did need to spend some time at the Gull, but he offered to come by around lunch instead.  Nathan nodded, hesitated, but left with nothing more than a quiet  _goodnight_ , his hand on Audrey’s hip as he guided her back to his truck.

Duke watched them drive away, and absolutely did  _not_  spend the night on the new couch.

Really.

 

* * *

 

Songs referenced:

[Wonderwall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc), by Oasis [X]

[Chasing Cars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemKqzILV4w), by Snow Patrol [[X](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/snowpatrol/chasingcars.html)]

[Losing My Religion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwtdhWltSIg), by R.E.M. [[X](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rem/losingmyreligion.html)]

[Come As You Are](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabnZ9-ex7o), by Nirvana [[X](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nirvana/comeasyouare112552.html)]

[Fix You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skUJ-B6oVDQ), by Coldplay [[X](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/coldplay/fixyou.html)]

[Bridge Over Troubled Water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G-YQA_bsOU), by Simon & Garfunkel [[X](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/simongarfunkel/bridgeovertroubledwater.html)]


	6. Chapter 6

 

The sixth time, Duke had nothing to do with it- he didn’t even show up.  Nathan and Audrey, on the other hand, well.  That was a different story.

***

“Hey.”  Nathan reached out, caught Audrey by the hip and pulled her in, and Audrey smiled up at him, bright and happy, and he still couldn’t quite believe that he was _allowed_ , that he got to reach out and touch and see her light up like she did, but there was no doubting the way she pressed closer, the way she slipped her arms around his waist and pushed up onto her toes to kiss him lightly.

“Hey,” she said, when she’d settled back onto her heels, warmth in her voice.  “You look nice.”

“...Thanks.  You, too.”  And she did, she was stunning- was _always_ stunning, really, but he enjoyed seeing her like this, dressed for a night out.  Seeing the decision made, in her fashionable dress and slightly-impractical shoes, that she was going to be off the clock.  

He was starting to get used to that, to the idea that they could _actually_ take time, off the clock, together.  That it was allowed, that it didn’t inevitably end in disaster, that they could just _relax_ , be people together.  People whose lives didn’t begin and end when they walked through the station doors.

Not that _Duke_ had ever allowed himself to be so narrowly defined, but it was still a work in progress for him, and, he was pretty sure, for Audrey as well.

“Duke not here yet?” he asked, glancing around, and Audrey shook her head.

“No, not yet.”  She leaned into him, and he kept his arms around her, enjoying the faint tickle as her hair brushed against his throat, enjoying the soft _warmness_ of her that he could feel.  It was distracting in the best way, one more thing he was getting used to, one more thing he still didn’t _quite_ believe he got to have.

He was working on that.

They stood like that, waiting, and Nathan honestly wasn’t making any effort to keep track of the time; he couldn’t feel the chill bite in the air, was perfectly content to just linger in the comfortable nearness of Audrey tucked against his chest, but eventually she shivered and frowned.

“He’s not usually _late_ ,” she said, pulling away enough to get into her purse, and checking her phone, “should we call?”

“Sure he’s on his way,” Nathan said, though some of the easy lassitude slipped away when he caught sight of the time- _he’d_ been running a few minutes behind himself, and they’d been standing there longer than he’d thought, Duke was definitely late enough to be notable.

“...Yeah,” Audrey said, but there was a flicker of doubt in her voice, the sort of concern that was only reasonable, given the givens.  “Hey, have you noticed...  Is it just me, or is he... acting different, the last week or so?”

“Different?” Nathan asked, though he was pretty sure he knew what Audrey meant; Duke had been _quieter_ , had been just a little distant, just a little more reserved.  Nathan hadn’t wanted to call him on it, wasn’t sure it wasn’t still something to do with the petrification Trouble, but he’d noticed.  Had noticed the shift back toward defensive smiles and jokes with just a little bit of bite in them and there’d been at least three days, in the last week, where Duke had barely checked in, and two of them he hadn’t even made it into the station.

“Just- is he _upset_?  He won’t say anything, but...”  Audrey sighed, sharp and discontent.  “And I don’t want to _press_ , he’s already being _skittish_ -”

“Skittish, really?” Nathan asked, pretty sure Duke wouldn’t appreciate that description, even if it was perhaps... _apt_.  “C’mon, Parker, it’s _Duke_ , it’s- he’s spent most of his life with one foot out the door, this’s, it’s a lot.”

“Is it too much?” she asked, quietly, and there was a _frailty_ in her expression, a sense of being _braced_ , and he hated that he wasn’t sure what to say.  He _didn’t know_ , didn’t have the answer- he wanted to think that it wasn’t, that Duke would settle out, but for all the years they’d known each other, for all the time they’d spent as friends and enemies and all manner of things in between, this was new territory.  This was new territory, and Nathan hadn’t been able to get a read on what Duke was thinking.

“...We’ll figure it out,” he said, finally, because _that_ , at least, he could be relatively confident of; if nothing else, the three of them were _stubborn_ , and none of them were particularly inclined toward _giving up_.  Not when it was something they wanted.  And _that_ , Nathan was sure they weren’t misreading- they all _wanted_ this.  “He say anything about being delayed, when you talked to him?”

“No, he- wait, when I talked to him?” Audrey asked, frowning.  “You didn’t talk to him?”

“...No,” Nathan said, brow furrowing.  “Why would I have...?”

“What do you mean, why- don’t you always?” Audrey asked, a note of confusion slipping into her voice.

“...No,” Nathan said, a sinking feeling- entirely in his head, he knew, but no less present- settling over him.  “No, I don’t.  Thought _you_ did.”

“What?  No, no, I- I haven’t-” Audrey broke off, her confusion shifting to _concern_ , the same uneasy _realization_ that he was feeling.

The sudden surety that they had definitely somehow made a mistake.

“You never... talked to him, _invited_ him?” Nathan asked, trying to make that line up.

“No,” Audrey repeated, shaking her head.  “And you, you... didn’t?  Either?”

“No,” Nathan confirmed, which- but that made _no sense_.  “How...”

“You really didn’t?  That first time, or, at the showing-”

“...That first time we were at the Gull,” Nathan said slowly, piecing it out, “thought you’d asked him, but...”

“...But maybe he just didn’t _know?_ ” Audrey suggested, and her concern was shifting further, taking on an edge of comprehension and dawning horror.  “And the showing, he said the Gull was catering, I thought-”

“He was _working_ ,” Nathan realized, with an unpleasant jolt.

“No, okay, but he definitely wasn’t working when we went to the Blue Lily, and it wasn’t an _accident_ , I mean, he showed up on time, he met us there,” Audrey said, insistent.  “And he met us out in _Derrie_ , he was _waiting_ , we were late.”

“...But he hesitated, after, before dinner,” Nathan pointed out, remembering that he’d found it _odd_ at the time.  Remembering, too, that Duke had _hesitated_ before the competition, too, just heading in the doors.  He’d been hesitating a _lot_ , recently, little pauses, and Nathan had chalked it up to Duke’s problems with _settling_ , his unease at being pinned down, had deliberately _not pushed_ for fear of making Duke feel _cornered_ , but if they’d misread things, if they’d misunderstood...

“Okay, but last week,” Audrey said, her _insistence_ starting to border on _desperation_ , “he set up last week, and, and that was _something_ , right, I mean...  I mean, there’s no way he _didn’t know_ , right, there’s no way he missed that he’s, that we’ve been-”

“That we’ve been dating for the last month and a half?” Nathan asked, a crawling sense of _loss_ leaving him off-balance and unsteady, his breath catching in his throat.  But it explained more than it didn’t, because Duke being _shy_ had felt off, right from the start.  Duke- for all his efforts to come across as someone who always had a plan B and an exit strategy- had always, _always_ been the leap-without-looking type when it came to the things he really _wanted_ , had always been reckless in the pursuit of his goals; Nathan had been as stymied as Audrey by Duke’s careful resistance, the way he’d been dancing around the edges of things- a kiss on the cheek here, a careful touch there, moments of closeness that never _went_ anywhere, and Nathan had _rationalized_.  Had come up with reasonable excuses, because honestly, it’d taken _him_ a little time to be sure, to work his way through _all of them_ as an option, and he had nowhere near the issues with commitment Duke did.

It had never occurred to him as an option that Duke was _holding back_ because Duke _didn’t think they were together_.

But it explained the hesitations, the moments of confusion.  It explained the way Duke was _accepting_ touch, but not initiating, not following up, not taking the opportunity to ask for more.  It explained the flickers of expression that Nathan had been reading as _uncertainty_ that really looked more like _envy_ and _resignation_ , when Audrey reached out to Nathan or Nathan reached out to Audrey.  It didn’t explain dinner at the Blue Lily, or meeting them out in Derrie, but those were small anomalies, in the grand scheme of things, less pressing than the consistent pattern of Duke _keeping distance_.

“Oh, _God_ ,” Audrey said, clearly reaching the same conclusion, and all the color had gone out of her cheeks, her expression pinched and her eyes wide.  “Nathan, did- _does_ \- he _really not know_?”

“...Might not,” he admitted, the words reluctant, bitter on his tongue, because maybe it’d taken him a little while to be sure, but he _had been_ , had settled into the strange, comfortable warmth of the three of them together, and the idea that none of it had been what he’d thought was _painful_.  And that uncertainty brought up a slew of questions he’d avoided dealing with by simply keeping quiet until he’d thought he’d had the answers; was this the right thing to be doing, was it really what he wanted, was it really what Audrey wanted- and now, far more threatening, _what if Duke didn’t want this at all_?

“...We have to fix this,” Audrey said, drawing herself up, her expression as serious as he’d ever seen it when they were approaching a dangerous Trouble.  “I mean, if, if this’s, if this is why he’s been- holding back, if this is why he’s been-” she broke off, left the words hanging, and Nathan could fill in the gap, had a few words of his own for the silence there.  She shook her head, and added, “Nathan, we have to make this _right_.”

“What,” Nathan started, and he could hear the doubt in his own voice, the creeping uncertainty, and for a moment, he wasn’t entirely sure his next words weren’t going to be _if he doesn’t want us_.  But he didn’t want to vocalize that thought, didn’t want to give it weight, make it _real_ ; he cleared his throat and started over.  “...What do you want to do?”

“We need to go talk to him.   _Now_ ,” Audrey said, and he could see traces of guilt in her expression, of the sort of fear that said she was worried she’d hurt someone she cared about, but he didn’t see any of the same sort of shuddering unease that had caught hold of _him_ -

-but then, Audrey had far less reason to worry about being _rejected_ than he did.  It had been an open secret well before they’d- before they’d _thought_ they’d gotten together, how much Duke cared about Audrey, how much he wanted her.

How much he loved her.

Nathan had no such guarantees.

But Audrey was already moving, pulling back, her hand going to his wrist as she pulled in the direction of the parking lot, and Nathan followed after, because he couldn’t bear to break that contact.  Not now, not when he wasn’t sure what, at the end of the evening, he’d have left at all.

He wasn’t surprised when Audrey unerringly headed for the Bronco- they’d have to come back and pick up her car, later, but she clearly wasn’t any happier about the idea of traveling separately right now than he was.  He took a single moment, getting in, to steady himself, to try and settle, and it didn’t really work, but he hadn’t expected it to.  He didn’t expect to be able to steady himself until this was sorted.

The drive to the Rouge was tense and silent, despite the handful of times Audrey opened her mouth as though planning to speak; she never managed, subsiding back into anxious quiet that he didn’t feel certain enough to interpret, right then.  Not when he might’ve just misread a solid _month and a half_ of interactions with someone he’d known _all his damn life_.

Though he supposed that really, it wouldn’t be the _first_ time he and Duke had been on _wildly_ different pages in terms of their relationship.

He parked in his usual space in front of the Rouge, and he was absolutely not going to admit to the flicker of relief he felt that it was still _there_ \- it was ridiculous, it shouldn’t even have entered his mind, he _knew_ Duke wasn’t planning on disappearing again.  That Duke had said as much, last week, had laid out in words that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Of course, given that the circumstances of that conversation might’ve been radically different than Nathan thought they were, maybe he wasn’t entirely out of line for a moment’s doubt.

Audrey reached over, caught his wrist, her fingers pressed firmly into his skin, and Nathan turned, met her searching look.

“Hey.  We’re- we’ll figure it out,” she said, parroting his own reassurance back at him, and the smile she gave was forced, but he appreciated the effort.

“...Yeah,” he said, not quite able to believe it, and her smile flickered, faded.

“Nathan.  We will figure this out.  We will make this right.  It’s going to be okay.  We will _make this_ okay.”

“...” And Nathan didn’t have the words, didn’t have a way to articulate the fear in him, the uncertainty- didn’t have a way to voice that he wasn’t just afraid they weren’t going to be able to sort things out with _Duke_ , but that he had no idea what the consequences of that might be for _them_ , either.  That he was rattled enough that he couldn’t guess what _Audrey_ might do, if things went badly.  So he didn’t say anything, just gave a brusque nod and pulled back, got out of the truck and squared his shoulders and tried not to show how much it felt like he was walking square into the teeth of disaster.

Audrey didn’t hesitate; she made her way onto the Rouge like there was no doubt in her mind that she belonged there, and Nathan followed, envying her certainty.  He’d never really felt out of place on the Rouge, even when he and Duke had been at odds, had never been _unsure_ of his welcome before.  Wondered how that could’ve changed so much in a few minutes, in a single conversation, for a single sudden realization.  Audrey knocked sharply on the door to the main cabin, waited a few seconds, and knocked again, and there was no mistaking the _demand_ in the sound.

It still took a minute for the door to open, Duke looking disheveled and distracted and _confused_ on the other side.  He was barefoot, with a streak of some kind of dirt down the side of his face and dust on his undershirt and his hair half out of its tail.  He’d clearly been in the middle of some kind of project, had just as clearly _not_ expected company.

“...Uh, hi?” he said, after a moment, looking between Nathan and Audrey, before his expression shifted, going from confused to _concerned_.  “What’s wrong, what’s happening?” he asked, taking a step back and leaving the door open, turning to look for _something_.  “What’s the Trouble?”

“What?” Audrey asked, clearly distracted from whatever she’d intended to say, and Duke turned back, gave them both a careful look.

“...I’m assuming it’s relatively serious, if the station called you in from the middle of a date, and if you came straight here without taking the time to change.  What are we dealing with?” Duke said, before his expression flickered, the lines around his eyes and mouth deepening, and he added, “Please tell me you’re here because you need _backup_ , not because this is the kind of Trouble you need a Crocker for.”

“Not here over a Trouble,” Nathan said, and Duke relaxed, for just a moment, the tension slipping out of his shoulders.  Then he narrowed his eyes, and the tension came right back, and he fixed Nathan with a look.

“If you are here over _crime_ , I didn’t have anything to do with it.  Which you know, because I have been too busy for anything even slightly illegal, and odds are you two _are_ my alibi.”

“What?   _No_ , Duke, we’re not- we’re not here for work,” Audrey said, reaching out and placing a hand on Duke’s wrist, and Duke stilled, expression swinging back to _confused_.

“Okay,” he said, dragging the word out long enough to turn it into a question.

“Just- can we come inside?  Please?  And- and talk?”

“...Yeah,” Duke said, moving back, out of the doorway once more.  “Yeah, of course, just... come on in.”  Duke raked one hand through his hair and made a face, pulling it completely loose from its tail and retying it while he waited for them to file in, and he brushed past Nathan with his usual easy disregard for personal space to close the door behind them, and Nathan pushed down a rush of unease at not knowing what he was supposed to read into that.  If there _was_ anything to read into that.  “Sorry, I was just- wasn’t expecting anyone to come by, tonight, can I, do you need anything?  Water, wine, whiskey?”

“No,” Audrey said, and Nathan wasn’t entirely sure he _didn’t_ want a drink, but he shrugged and shook his head when Duke glanced at him for confirmation.  Duke raised an eyebrow in a very clear _your loss_ expression, and as soon as he’d lead them down to the kitchen, poured himself a more-than-generous measure.  He turned and gestured expansively with the glass of whiskey, and his smile was strained and sharp at the edges.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” he said, and it really wasn’t an invitation.  Duke didn’t make any move to sit, either, leaning back against the counter and taking a long drink.

Audrey moved forward, went to lean against the counter next to him, and Nathan just hovered, uncomfortable with even as little space as he was taking up, all the more sure that this was going to go _badly_ in the face of Duke’s barely-masked discomfort.  Had he been ignoring that, over the last few weeks?  Had he just _not seen_ that Duke was clearly not entirely comfortable with the two of them in his space?

But if he had been, why the hell would Duke have _invited them over_ , put as much work into one day as he had?  It didn’t make _sense_ , and Nathan felt frustration bubble up, anger at his own uncertainty, at the whole damn situation.  He didn’t like not understanding, had _never_ liked being left in the dark- his _job_ was to sort things out, put pieces together and come up with an explanation for things, it offended him when he ran into a situation that he _couldn’t_ make sense out of.

“Duke...” Audrey started, but she didn’t seem to know where to go from there, didn’t seem to have a plan.  Seemed just as alarmed by Duke’s visible defensiveness as Nathan was.

“Audrey,” Duke said, drawing it out, and it wasn’t quite a taunt, but it was definitely not designed to _help_ , either.  He waited, letting the quiet build, before he took another drink and flashed a brittle smile.  “Do either of you want to tell me what you’re doing here, or am I supposed to guess?  I mean, you’re clearly a little dressed up for an impromptu card night, and if you’re not here for work...”

“Duke,” Audrey tried again, “It’s, we- we think, that maybe...  That maybe there’s been kind of a, a misunderstanding,” she said, and Duke’s expression, already defensive, went _cold_ , went sharp and closed-off.  Nathan could see the tension building in his shoulders, could see it in the stiffening of his spine, in the precise, careful way he set his glass of whiskey aside.

“Gotta say, I _kinda_ expected to get this conversation two weeks ago,” Duke said, with an empty laugh.  “Didn’t really expect it tonight.  I figured I was in the clear this time, at least.”

“...What?” Audrey asked, blinking, and Nathan could see the first crack in her composure, the first trace of something like _alarm_ , something that said she was recalculating, and quickly.  “Duke-”

“Audrey, it’s- it’s fine.  Really, you don’t need to explain,” he said, shifting against the counter so that he could rest his hands behind him, and Nathan could see that he’d gripped the edge of the counter hard enough that his knuckles had gone white- the same desperate grip he’d taken last week, when he’d slipped out in the middle of the movie.  “Not sure why you needed to interrupt your plans for this, though.”

“...Why we- no, okay, just, will you listen, for a second, I don’t-”

“I’d really rather not,” Duke said, with a flash of teeth that only peripherally resembled a smile.  “I get it.”  He shrugged, and it was loose and easy and a _lie_ , a mask for the tension he was holding, Nathan had known him too long not to see that.  “Don’t really need to hear it, I’ll just- you need more space, I can work with that-”

“What, _more_ \- no, that is _not_ -” Audrey looked baffled, looked lost, and she reached out again, and Duke shifted, put himself just out of reach.  Audrey froze, lips parted and eyes wide, expression one of utter disbelief.

“Don’t,” he said, soft and _restrained_ , voice so careful it was almost unrecognizable.  “Don’t make this any harder.  Please.”

Audrey pulled her hand back, looking stricken, and looked to him, pleading in every line- she didn’t know what to do, clearly had no idea how to move forward from that, was floundering in the face of Duke’s retreat.

Nathan wasn’t actually any more certain, but it was clear that whatever page Duke was on, it still wasn’t where he and Audrey were.

“Duke,” Nathan said, working to keep his voice steady, to try and pull control of the conversation away from Duke and Audrey, “need you to _stop talking_ , and _listen_.”

“Don’t really think it’s going to sound any better coming from you, Nate,” Duke said, and Nathan exhaled sharply, just short of a sigh.  “Seriously, it’s not-”

“Damnit, Duke, _just stop_ ,” Nathan snapped, crossing the space between them in three long strides, reaching out and catching Duke by the shoulder.  He was probably holding too tight, but Duke was _braced_ , was already moving to pull away, and that wasn’t something Nathan could let him do, not when he looked as _fraught_ as he did, as certain.  The last time he’d seen that expression, Duke had blown town for the better part of a _decade_ , and Nathan was not letting that happen again.  “Just _stop_.  Please.   _Listen_ , don’t _react_.”

“Let go,” Duke said, and the words were a threat; Nathan ignored them, knew by now when Duke was _actually_ a threat and when he was just _scared_.  This was bravado, nothing more, and it was _getting in the way_.

“No.  Last thing _any_ of us want is to _let you go_.  Last thing any of us want is _more space_.”  Nathan took another step forward, using his position to simply force Duke back a step, and Audrey caught on, or maybe she didn’t, maybe it was just instinct, but she reached out, caught Duke’s other arm, maybe steadying, maybe restraining, maybe touching just to touch, but Duke _shuddered_ , a tremor rolling through him that Nathan could see, and he went very still.

“Duke.  Whatever you think this conversation is, I think you misunderstood,” Audrey said, her voice careful and quiet and entreating, and she shifted her hand on his arm, delicate fingers circling the tense muscle, _holding_ \- and it was ridiculous, Duke could’ve broken her grip without a thought, could probably break Nathan’s if he tried, but he wasn’t, was just _waiting_ , now, eyes a little too wide, breathing a little too fast.  The _certainty_ had drained out of him at Audrey’s touch, at her words, and Nathan almost felt guilty about the _vulnerability_ in his dark eyes.

Almost.

“You gonna _listen_?” Nathan asked, tone just as careful and far less entreating than Audrey’s- it wasn’t a _question_ as much as an instruction, and Duke swallowed hard and nodded.  “Good.  Parker?”

“Duke...  When I said we thought there’d been a _misunderstanding_ , I meant that I thought _Nathan and I_ had made a mistake.  That _we_ had done something we didn’t mean to,” Audrey said, her voice still careful.  “See, we went out tonight, and we were waiting for you.  You were late.”

Duke shivered again, and Nathan could see his expression shifting, taking on an edge of _confusion_ , and a wild, wary trace of something that could’ve been _hope_.

“We expected you to be there,” Audrey continued.  “We _wanted_ you to be there.  But when you were late, what we realized, we realized that maybe, maybe we had made a very bad mistake.  That maybe you didn’t _know_ that we wanted you to be there.  Because we realized...  That maybe neither of us had _told_ you that, that maybe neither of us had told you that yet _at all_.”  Audrey shifted forward, until she was pressed against Duke’s back, and Nathan could see her grip tighten on his arm.  “We made a mistake, Duke, _we_ misunderstood.  We thought...”

“Thought this, _us_ , all of us, was... something,” Nathan picked up, voice low and rough-edged.  “Thought _you_ knew this was something.”

“Because you were _there_ ,” Audrey said.  “You were there, and we thought you were supposed to be, we thought you knew we wanted you there.  So this time, when you _weren’t_ , we were confused.  Until we talked about it, and realized neither of us was _telling_ you that you were supposed to be there, that we wanted you there, that it was apparently just _happening_.  And I don’t really understand _how_ it was just happening, that, that kinda, we’re not sure about that, but it means that _we_ messed up.  Not you.”

“I-” Duke started, and Nathan gave his shoulder a gentle shake, a silent reminder that he was supposed to be _listening_ , not talking, and Duke went quiet again, worked his jaw and _waited_.  The wildness hadn’t entirely faded from his expression, but it was _lessened_ , at least, balanced by confusion and doubt and a creeping edge of what was _definitely_ hope.

“We didn’t come here tonight to tell you we needed _space_ ,” Audrey said, her tone turning ‘space’ into something bitter and vile.  “We came here tonight to tell you we wanted _you_.  That we thought we _had_ you, that we’ve thought that for more than a month.  And if _you_ don’t want that-” Audrey’s voice caught, the words hitching, and Nathan hated the fear he could see, hated that he couldn’t fix it, but _that_ was out of his hands, “-if _you_ don’t want us, then, then we’ll go, we’ll, we’ll give you space, if that’s what you want.  But it isn’t what we want.  The _last thing_ either of us want is _more space_.  The last thing either of us want is to let you go.”

“ _Now_ you can talk,” Nathan said, relaxing his hold on Duke’s shoulder just slightly, just enough to let him know he meant it, and Duke’s eyes narrowed, his expression _searching_ , focused.

“Nate...” he said, and it was a question as much as anything, raw and uncertain.

“Want this,” Nathan said, voice low.  “Both of us, we _want this_.”  The admission wasn’t _easy_ , wasn’t simple- Nathan wasn’t good at being vulnerable, wasn’t good at letting his walls down, and he and Duke had _history_ , but there wasn’t any other way this was going to work, and Nathan _needed_ this to work.

He _wanted_ this.

Wanted it badly enough that he’d apparently convinced himself he’d already had it.

“Are you _sure_ ,” Duke pressed, and his voice was shaking, now, and Nathan wished he could go _back_ , to the first night, the first date, wished he could change how it ended, wished he could make it so that they’d all been on the same page from the beginning, because there was _hurt_ in that question, pain that _didn’t need to be there_ , and Nathan hated it, as much as he’d hated Audrey’s fear.

But _this_ , at least, he wasn’t helpless to fix.

“Far as I knew, we’ve been doing this more’n a month,” Nathan said, taking another step forward, and there was nowhere for Duke to go, with Audrey still pressed against his back, no room for him to retreat, and his eyes went wide, his breath hitching as Nathan closed the last scrap of distance between them.  “I’m _sure_.”

“Please, Duke,” Audrey said, her voice soft and gentle and aching.  “Can we stay?”

And something in Duke just- _snapped_ , at the words; Nathan hadn’t expected him to _fold_ , to crumple forward against him.  He scrambled to support him as he moved, Duke’s forehead landing against his shoulder and his hands coming up to clutch at Nathan’s arms.  Audrey pressed closer against Duke’s back to pin Duke between them, her expression taut with concern.  Duke was _shaking_ , badly enough that Nathan was aware of it, his breathing coming in sharp little hitches, and Nathan had to strain to catch the words hidden in between.

“ _Please_ ,” Duke whispered, muffled against Nathan’s shoulder, barely audible.  “Please, yes, please stay.”

“Not going anywhere,” Nathan said, voice rough and certain.  “Not letting you go.”

“I thought-”

“I’m _so sorry_ , Duke,” Audrey said, her voice urgent.  “We should’ve, we shouldn’t’ve just- I’m _sorry_.”  And it really wasn’t enough, wasn’t anywhere near enough, but what could they say?

Probably nothing.  Words weren’t really adequate.  Not for this.

Nathan’d never been particularly good with words, anyway.

So instead, he shifted his hold on Duke, moved so that he could bring one hand up, to rest along Duke’s jaw, to guide his head up, off of Nathan’s shoulder.  Duke didn’t resist, moved as Nathan bid, meeting Nathan’s eyes with a naked sort of vulnerability, all his masks stripped away, eyes dark and lips parted and still on some level _braced_.

Nathan held for a moment, just _looking_ , taking the measure of that caution, of the hope beneath it, and brushed his thumb carefully over Duke’s cheek- Duke’s eyes fluttered closed at the caress, his breath caught.  Nathan shifted his hand, slid forward down his chin until his thumb was brushing over Duke’s lower lip, instead, and Duke’s eyes went _wide_ , a flush crawling up his cheeks, and Nathan pushed forward, pressed their lips together.  Wasn’t entirely sure of Duke’s response- could hear a sharp, startled whine, knew that Duke shifted and moved, but he was distracted, nearly overwhelmed, by the sharp burst of whiskey and salt and a tiny, faint hint of copper on his tongue.

It was probably not, objectively speaking, a fantastic kiss, but Nathan couldn’t tell and Duke didn’t seem to _care_ , pushing forward roughly enough to rock Nathan back, and Nathan set his feet and kept them in place.  Audrey made a noise, or maybe breathed out a quiet curse, Nathan wasn’t sure of that either, was lost in chasing the tastes that were bright and present and full of promise.

Until her hand was on his wrist, an unmistakable attempt to get his attention, and he made an effort to marshal his thoughts and pull back- a task made more difficult by Duke’s low, unhappy growl when he did, the sound hitting something deep and primal and possessive in Nathan’s brain.  But Audrey was insistent, and he backed off enough to make room for her, because she had shifted around, was attempting to wriggle into the non-existent space between their bodies, and her skin brushed his as she caught Duke’s chin in her hands, as she tugged him down to claim a kiss of her own.

That was probably fair; Nathan probably had no good cause to argue that.

Particularly as it meant he was pressed all along the length of Audrey’s back, her hair brushing the skin of his throat, sparks of sensation rolling along the edges of his fingers where they competed for space on Duke’s skin, and Duke made a new sound, low and eager, one of his hands reaching for purchase on Audrey’s hip, the other still locked firmly around Nathan’s upper arm.

And _that_ , that was what Nathan had been expecting, had been _waiting for_ \- Duke pressing forward, hands digging in, holding tight.  Eager and clinging, and later, Nathan was going to properly chew himself out for having ever even _thought_ to rationalize Duke’s hesitancy, for not having _caught on_ weeks ago, because _this_ was everything they _should have_ seen.  Later, when he wasn’t busy watching Audrey sneak one hand around the back of Duke’s neck to tangle in his hair, making a mess of the tail and making Duke groan into their kiss.

Nathan dipped his head, pressed his lips to the exposed skin of Audrey’s neck, won a whimper and a shiver from her as he trailed kisses from her shoulder to just below her ear.  She rocked back against him, and Duke followed her motion with a half-step forward, so that she was pinned as thoroughly between them as they’d had Duke pinned a few moments before.  Then he pulled back, broke the kiss, and let go of Nathan’s arm to catch the back of _his_ neck, dragging him back into a kiss over Audrey’s shoulder, and Nathan let him, tried to follow his movements.  Wasn’t sure he succeeded, wasn’t sure it mattered.  Wanted to drown in the whiskey-and-salt on his tongue, in the bright burst of hot skin where Audrey reached up to trace her fingertips along the side of his neck, in the sharp sounds of desperate inhales and not-quite-sighs that belonged to any and all of them.

Duke made a needy sound, and Nathan pulled back enough to realize that Audrey was mouthing along the column of his neck, and the hand that _wasn’t_ still tracing teasing patterns along Nathan’s neck was hooked very demandingly in the front of Duke’s jeans, her thumb threateningly close to the button on his fly.

“Aud-” Duke started, voice no more than a breathy wisp of a thing, and Audrey gave a sharp tug on his pants, and he lost the rest of the word, or maybe hadn’t had it to start with.

“Last chance to say this isn’t what you want,” Audrey said, and even the _thought_ made Nathan’s pulse jump in an entirely unpleasant way, “because if you don’t tell me to back off right now, I’m making up for lost time.”

“ _Jesus_ ,” Duke breathed out, and Nathan could see him swallow, could see him work his jaw wordlessly, before he shook his head.  “Anything you want, just- just promise this isn’t _once_.”

“...Not just _once_ ,” Nathan growled out, not entirely sure what it was going to take to get that point across.  “Damnit, Duke, we _want this_ -”

“You’re _ours_ ,” Audrey interjected sharply, shifting up on her toes and leaning forward, and Nathan couldn’t see what she did, but Duke _yelped_ , the sound startled and heated, and when she pulled back again, Nathan could see a red mark at the base of Duke’s throat.  “Mine, and Nathan’s.  We’re _keeping_ you.”

“...Okay,” Duke rasped out, looking at Audrey with a wide-eyed sort of _whelm_ , something that could’ve been wariness or could’ve been awe, and whatever it was, it clearly made sense to Audrey- she let go of his pants to tangle her fingers in the cords and chains around his neck, and gave a pointed tug.

“Think we should take this out of the kitchen now,” she said, and it wasn’t a suggestion.  Duke flicked a glance at Nathan, some kind of question, and Nathan stepped back enough to give Audrey room to move, and tilted his head in the direction of the bedroom, seconding Audrey’s instruction.  Duke blinked, and held his hands up in a gesture of _surrender_ , and Nathan wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Duke look quite that _yielding_ before, an entirely new kind of tension in his shoulders, visibly different from his _unease_ earlier.

Anticipation.  He was pretty sure it was anticipation.

Audrey pulled Duke through the kitchen, toward the bedroom, and he followed meekly after; Nathan paced after them both, taking a moment to enjoy the sight- Audrey still elegant and dressy and Duke decidedly _not_ , and the contrast was... appealing.  He _wanted_ , an urgency and a heat that itched at his mind, entirely independent from the numbness in his skin.  He wanted to touch, wanted to taste, wanted more of those urgent and half-swallowed sounds.

It was still almost a shock that it seemed like that was the plan.

Audrey stopped next to the bed, not relinquishing her grip on Duke’s necklaces- she used her hold to pull him down into another kiss, holding him there while she kicked off her shoes and settled more comfortably onto her feet.  Nathan kept a careful distance, watching, because Audrey seemed to have a _goal_ , and he didn’t know quite what it was yet, and he did not want to get in her way.  When she _did_ let Duke go, he was decidedly glassy-eyed, reddened lips parted and breathing unsteady.  Audrey observed him for a moment, looking pleased with her work, before she tilted her head.

“Did you mean it?” she asked, and Duke blinked at her, clearly not following.

“...What?” he asked, after a moment.

“You said _anything I want_.  Did you mean it.”

Duke blinked at her again, brows dipping and eyes going narrow; he tilted his head, looked considering, and turned his attention to Nathan, another silent question.  Nathan just met his gaze, as level and even as he could manage when _need_ was a crawling presence in his mind, because it was Duke’s call.  Nathan, for his part, had no intention of backing down.

He trusted Audrey; he’d follow her lead.

Duke’s eyes narrowed just a little more, and then they _widened_ as consideration faded into _surprise_ , and he wet his lips as he turned his attention back to Audrey.

“Yes.”

“Good,” Audrey said, taking a step back.  She turned to catch Nathan’s eye, and indicated Duke with a tilt of her head.  “He’s wearing too much.  Fix it.”

Nathan hesitated for just a second, caught a little off-guard by the abruptness of the instruction, and he could see Duke waver, could _see_ the desire to crack a joke written all over his face, appreciated the moment of levity even if Duke managed to swallow back the urge.  Appreciated the reminder that they were all still _them_ , that nothing that happened here stood a chance of changing that.

Then he moved forward, stepped into Duke’s space, eyes on Duke’s.  Duke watched him approach, made no effort to step back, and it was- it was nothing like the easy way they usually moved around each other.  They’d been close, like this, hundreds- _thousands_ \- of times, neither of them had ever really established a _reasonable_ distance between them, but this was... new.  This was slow and deliberate and _crossing the line_ in a way that even the heated exchange in the kitchen hadn’t been, was _going somewhere_ and they both knew it.

Nathan quirked his brow, a silent question of his own, and Duke’s eyes dropped, flicked down, acknowledgement and answer- he looked back up and _waited_ , expression caught somewhere between a lingering trace of amusement and something softer, something that might’ve been _supplication_.

Nathan dragged in a breath, and caught Duke by the hips, pushing his fingertips up under the hem of Duke’s thin white undershirt.  He knew he’d hit skin instead of denim when Duke hissed in a breath, when he could see him tense at the touch, and he lingered for a moment, not doing anything but _looking_ , not doing anything but reveling in the fact that Duke was shivering under his hands, weight shifted forward against his palms.

Then he slid his hands up, rucking the fabric up as he did, dragging it along as he smoothed his fingertips over the dips and planes of Duke’s stomach, over his chest, exposing familiar skin in a decidedly unfamiliar way.  Duke breathed out a sound, low and barely audible, his eyes fluttering nearly closed, body swaying forward.  He waited until Nathan had run out of room to move, then took over, dragging the thin fabric over his head and tossing it aside.  Nathan dragged in another breath, caught for a moment by the sheer aesthetic _pleasure_ of that- Duke was golden and gleaming in the mellow light from his overhead lamp, sleek and sharp-edged and _beautiful_.

And _theirs_.

Nathan slid one hand further up, brought it around to cup the back of Duke’s neck and drag him into another kiss, less precise than before and not caring, and he was vaguely aware of Duke’s hands moving, was fairly sure they settled at his hips.  He knew when Duke’s hips rocked forward against his own from the startled, raw little gasp Duke gave, and Duke pulled back enough to free himself of the kiss, eyes wide and dark and _eager_.

“Jesus, Nate,” he said, the sound just short of a whine, and Nathan wasn’t _entirely_ sure what his surprise was for- until he moved again, rocked forward, and his eyes fell half-closed.  “Fuck, you’re _hard_.”

Audrey gave a low, throaty laugh, clearly enjoying Duke’s surprise, and Nathan made a low sound that wasn’t _quite_ annoyance.

“Not actually _incapable_ ,” he said roughly, and Duke dropped his eyes again, a trace of genuine chagrin in his expression.

“Getting that,” Duke said, something that might’ve been apology in his tone, uneasy and real, and Nathan was definitely not at all interested in holding on to old injuries, just then.  He had better things to spend his energy on.  Still, Duke was clearly bracing to try and _say something_ , which would’ve been an unexpected display of effort and earnestness in any other circumstances but would definitely distract from the mood _now_.  “Nate, I’m-”

“Going to make up for it,” Nathan interrupted, tightening his hold on the back of Duke’s neck, reveling in the way Duke went quiet and still, in the way his eyes immediately refixed on Nathan’s.  “Thoroughly.”

“...Yeah.  Yeah, okay,” Duke rasped out, yielding with far less fuss than Nathan expected- but then, he probably didn’t want to rehash old arguments either.  “Whatever you want.”

“Gonna hold you to that,” Nathan warned, and Duke shifted, dropped his chin and looked up at Nathan from between his lashes, coy and coquettish and _certain_ , suddenly, all practiced, confident charm.

“Counting on it,” he said, his hands catching in the fabric of Nathan’s shirt, bunching it enough to pull it loose from where it had been tucked in, and Nathan could track the moment Duke’s fingers found _his_ skin by his sharp inhale, by the flick of his tongue out over his lips.  Nathan let him touch, for a moment, distracted by the _want_ he could see, by the traces of eager disbelief- like Duke was counting himself _fortunate_ for the chance, and the idea settled warm and thrilling in Nathan’s chest.

Duke wanted this, wanted _him_.  Hadn’t been holding back because he was _unsure_ , hadn’t been keeping a distance because he was _uncomfortable_ \- he _wanted this_.

The sound that drew itself from Nathan’s throat was rough and heated and _possessive_ , and he moved forward, abrupt and determined; Duke wasn’t expecting it, stumbled once before he managed to get his feet back under him as Nathan took him three steps back and up against the wall.

“Nate-” Duke started, but whatever he was going to say disappeared into a high, eager moan as Nathan brought one hand up to rest at Duke’s throat, careful and precise, and followed the gesture with his mouth.  Duke tasted like salt and dust and sweat, like the lingering traces of smoke and spices from the restaurant, and Nathan bit down, winning another bright sound.  A faint jogging of his vision suggested that Duke had one hand fisted in Nathan’s hair, a tinny scrabble suggested that his other hand was seeking purchase against the wall, and Nathan rocked his hips forward, making Duke stutter out a curse.  This close, Nathan could hear every gasp, every unsteady breath, every tiny, barely-audible whine, each one sending a heady, electric pulse of _need_ across Nathan’s thoughts.

Nathan didn’t pull back until he was absolutely sure that there would be a visible, _lasting_ mark where he’d been working, something not easily hidden beneath a shirt-collar, and he shifted up, spoke low and demanding beside Duke’s ear.

“Belong to _us_ ,” he said, emphasizing the words with another roll of his hips.  “Understand?”

“ _Jesus_ , Nate-” Duke breathed out, and Nathan moved again, making Duke gasp.  “Fuck, _yes_ , I- I understand!”

“Not sure you do,” Nathan said, part challenge, part threat, all promise, “but you’re gonna.”  He backed off enough to actually see what he was doing, because he could get by with guesswork to a point, but buttons and zippers required finesse, and he couldn’t resist dragging his palm along the hard outline of Duke’s length where it strained against the denim.  Duke rocked into the touch, and Nathan’s vision jogged again- Duke tugging on his hair, or just _holding on_ when his knees went weak, Nathan wasn’t quite sure- and Duke sagged back against the wall, leaning like he couldn’t keep his feet without the support.

Nathan popped the button on Duke’s jeans, worked the zipper carefully down, and dragged the jeans down off his hips- Duke was wearing absolutely nothing _under_ his jeans, and Nathan made a low sound of approval, letting go of the fabric to bring his hand back up, curling his fingers around Duke’s cock and stroking up, base to tip.  Duke made a strangled, _needy_ sound, and Nathan repeated the movement.

“Nathan,” Audrey said, steady and precise, “you’re hogging the view.”  It wasn’t quite a chastisement, but there was a confidence in her voice that Nathan recognized, a _certainty_ that meant she definitely planned to be calling the shots, and that was a whole different kind of enticing.  He stepped back, out of the way, having to make an actual effort to ignore Duke’s plaintive sound of disapproval, and looked to Audrey for instruction; she smiled at him, and sauntered closer, reaching out to lace their fingers together in a fire-bright tangle of sensation.

“Mm.  Very nice,” she commented, looking Duke over; she gave Nathan’s fingers a gentle squeeze before she took another step forward, reaching up to feather a touch along Duke’s collarbone.  “We have been waiting for _weeks_ to have you like this,” she said, her hand moving down Duke’s chest, pausing over his heart, and Nathan could see his breathing speed up, could see him press forward into the contact, eyes half-closed and hooded.  She leaned in, went up on her toes, and whispered something next to Duke’s ear that Nathan couldn’t hear; Duke made a low sound, his hands twitching toward her hips, but he caught himself, stilled his hands before he made contact.

Then Audrey moved back, and indicated the bed with a sharp tilt of her head.

“Go,” she said, and Duke went, stepping carefully out of the tangle of his jeans around his feet and perching on the edge of the bed, clearly expecting some further instruction.  Audrey, however, turned to Nathan, and tugged on his tie.  “You’re overdressed, too,” she said, her tone softer, _gentler_ , than before; it was _almost_ a question, and Nathan reached up to catch her hand, brushing his thumb along the back of it in silent assurance.  He was willing to follow her lead, he was with her, he was okay.

She smiled, warm and relieved, and gave another tug on his tie.

“Fix it,” she instructed, and Nathan let go of her hand and set to work on his own clothes.  He regretted, immediately, that they were dressed for a date and not a casual evening; there were a _lot_ of buttons to manage.

Audrey stepped away, stepped over to the bed, and Nathan _really_ regretted the buttons; he couldn’t watch what she was doing and look at what his fingers were doing, and the surge of frustration that welled up was almost a surprise.  If he could just _feel what he was doing_ -

-but he couldn’t, and of all the things he could get tripped up on, right now, the buttons were _not_ going to be the thing that got in his way.  He would manage this, because _everything else_ was working.

Everything else was working, and he wanted this way, way too much to let his frustration get in the way.

Besides, he could still _hear_ them, Audrey murmuring quietly and Duke breathing just a little too fast, hands sliding over skin and the sudden break in Audrey’s voice that suggested a kiss, the rustle of the sleek fabric of Audrey’s dress, and it didn’t _settle_ him any, but he wasn’t actually missing anything, not if he paid attention.

He got himself out of his shirt and tie, toed off his shoes and socks, and hesitated over his belt, taking a moment to glance up, and his breath caught; Audrey was standing next to the bed, Duke’s knees bracketing her legs.  She had one hand tangled in his hair, holding him in place against her collarbone, her other hand resting lightly on his shoulder, fingertips tracing patterns on his skin.  Duke had one broad hand settled at her waist, spread over her back, and his other hand was sliding up the back of her thigh, rucking up her skirt as it went.  And even from where he was, even with Duke’s expression hidden from him, Nathan could read the _reverence_ in that touch, in the slow and steady movement.  Audrey’s head was tilted back, and he couldn’t see _her_ expression either, but he could imagine just fine, and he fumbled with the buckle on his belt until he could get rid of the damn thing, until he could get rid of the rest of his clothes and step up behind her, fill the space at her back and press his lips to the smooth skin of her neck, one hand wrapping around the hip Duke wasn’t claiming, the other moving to rest along Audrey’s outstretched hand.  And he still couldn’t actually _feel_ Duke’s hair, but he could feel the absences it created, the gaps in his ability to feel Audrey, and it was almost enough, he could almost fill those gaps with the memory of _soft_ and _silk_ and _texture_.

Audrey leaned back against him, tilted her head to give him better access to the side of her neck, made a soft breathy little sound, and Duke echoed her, tilting his head to press insistently into their hands, and Nathan was fairly sure he shivered, was fairly sure, suddenly, that _both of them_ might be _too much_ , might be more than he was prepared to handle with any kind of grace.

He was damn sure looking forward to trying.

Audrey shifted, and Nathan pulled back enough to let her move; she slipped past him and motioned for him to step forward in her place, and she was flushed and breathing quickly, her eyes bright and full of confidence.  Duke’s eyes and hands chased her for a moment, touch lingering to the very tips of his fingers as she moved away; Nathan didn’t think he’d ever seen quite that mix of expressions on Duke’s face before, need and want and raw adoration and something still lingering, caution and uncertainty and something deeper that Nathan couldn’t identify.

Something he didn’t want to understand, something he just wanted to erase.  He reached out, caught Duke’s chin in his hand, and Duke tilted his head up, his expression shifting immediately as his eyes raked up along Nathan’s body, and Nathan _liked_ that look, felt it settle in the back of his mind like an ember, appreciation and want and something a little like awe.  It was... satisfying, when he’d spent so much time uncomfortable in his own skin, seeing Duke react like Nathan was _worth looking at_.  Like it was taking effort not to just reach out and _grab_.

Nathan moved to fill the space Audrey had left, and Duke looked up at him, waiting and wanting.  And there was quite a difference, in how _much_ Duke had to look up, Nathan towering over him while he was sitting in a way that Audrey simply _didn’t_ \- Nathan traced his touch along Duke’s jaw, until he could press his thumb against Duke’s lip once more, and Duke dragged in a breath, trembling and uneven.  He parted his lips, and Nathan took advantage, ran his thumb along his lip, trying for firm but careful, still, of the pressure, and Duke made a _sound_ , high and urgent and utterly unexpected, and flicked his tongue out, chasing Nathan’s movement, and for a second, Nathan nearly lost his balance.  He hadn’t expected that, hadn’t been prepared, and the surge of _want_ was overwhelming; Duke’s eyelids fluttered, nearly falling shut as Nathan’s fingers dug in just a little harder, a little less carefully, and it was Nathan’s turn to make a sound, low and heated and just as urgent.  Duke flicked a glance up, between his lashes, and Nathan wasn’t sure if it was a question or a plea, wasn’t sure he cared, because the answer was _yes_ , was Nathan shifting his hand to settle at the back of Duke’s neck, was a firm tug that had nothing of uncertainty in it.  

Duke brought his hands up, settled them at Nathan’s hips, gave him a careful push back; Nathan followed the movement easily, with the familiar comfort he’d _always_ had, moving around Duke’s cues.  Duke shifted forward, followed until he could slip off the edge of the bed and go gracefully to his knees, and Nathan shifted his hands to Duke’s shoulders, not sure of the pressure of his grip but needing the contact, needing to steady.  Duke tilted his head, brushed his cheek along one of Nathan’s hands, and the gesture was soft, was _sweet_ , unexpectedly so- and then he drew one hand in, traced from Nathan’s hip to circle the base of his cock, slow and deliberate, making sure that Nathan could see what he was doing.  Nathan couldn’t look away, was utterly transfixed by the slow touch, by the contrast, the rough-scarred-tan of Duke’s fingers along the pale-flushed-soft of his own skin; Duke’s attention was split, his eyes flicking between what his hand was doing and Nathan’s face, checking his reactions as he stroked slow and smooth.

Nathan was fairly sure his grip on Duke’s shoulders had gone rough, was fairly sure that it was all that was keeping him on his feet, but Duke didn’t seem fazed, though it couldn’t be comfortable.  He continued to touch, slow and easy and not making any effort to push things along- his cheeks were flushed, his lips still parted, and he looked damn near _enthralled_ , and Nathan honestly wasn’t sure what was hitting him harder, that Duke had gone to his knees for him so easily, or the fact that he was so visibly pleased to be there.

_Sensation_ , startling and intense- Audrey trailed her fingertips down his shoulder, moving into his field of view, and Duke paused, glanced up at her.  She had shed her dress, but nothing else; was standing comfortable and confident in her unadorned black underthings that somehow managed to look elegant and sensual despite their simplicity.

“Don’t stop,” she instructed, reaching out to feather a touch along Duke’s cheek, and he turned into it, chased the contact, but he still resumed his slow, easy touches.  “You look good like this.  Doesn’t he, Nathan?  All eager and wanting?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Nathan said, the word choked and raw, and Duke made a quiet sound, just shy of a whine, flushing at the word.

“Mmm.  You want to do more than just _touch_ , don’t you, Duke?” Audrey asked.

“...Yes,” Duke managed, and Nathan could hear the heat in it, edged in something soft, something like pleading.  He was _asking_ , seeking permission.

“What do you want to do, Duke?  Tell us what you want.”  Audrey touched him again, and his eyes fluttered closed for a moment- he worked his jaw, visibly searching for words, before he swallowed hard and looked up again, glanced once at Audrey before he fixed his attention on Nathan, met his eyes and looked down again.

“I want to taste you,” he said, careful and concise.  “Please, Nate, I want...”  He paused, his expression shifting, before he glanced at Audrey again, assessing.  “I want him to see that.  Please, I... May I?”

Audrey glanced at Nathan- as though there was _any question_ what Nathan’s answer was, as though Nathan wasn’t practically trembling with need, as though Nathan would’ve been able to say _no_ to that even if he hadn’t been- and made a quiet, considering sound, and Nathan wondered if _he_ was going to have to beg, was pretty sure he _would_ , at this point.  Then she moved just a little more to the side, giving herself a better view, and nodded.

“Well, you asked so nice,” she said, a hint of humor under the calm control in her tone.  “Go ahead.”

Duke’s expression flickered, just a fraction, just for a second, but it was enough for Nathan to read the _gee, thanks_ there, amusement and affection and teasing, and it was... reassuring, but he didn’t have time to dwell; as quickly as it showed it disappeared, and Duke was all intensity and focus once again.  He shifted forward, pressed his forehead into the sharply-defined flat of Nathan’s hip, leaning for just a moment- gathering himself, maybe, or giving Nathan a moment’s warning- before he turned his head, angled himself so that he was looking up at Nathan, holding his gaze and slowly, deliberately trailing his lips along the length of Nathan’s cock.  His expression shifted again, whatever level of intention or control or certainty he’d been intending to convey slipping away, subsumed under a vulnerable, desperate sort of _want_ , his eyes fluttering nearly closed as one hand tightened on Nathan’s hip and the other pressed carefully at the base of Nathan’s length, fingers curled and thumb sliding up and down in an uncertain tempo.  Nathan heard Duke’s breath catch, the quietest little trace of a whine escaping him as he parted his lips, took Nathan between them, and _Jesus_ but Nathan was never going to be able to shake that look, overwhelmed and utterly undone, and the sound that pulled from him at the sight was half-broken and urgent.

“ _Christ_ , Duke,” he bit out, voice rasping; he brought one hand up without thinking, tangled his fingers in Duke’s hair, and he had no idea how hard he was pulling, no idea how tight he was holding.  Wasn’t sure it mattered, because the sound Duke made in response was anything but _pained_ , was hot and needing and wanton and _muffled_ as he pressed forward, doing _things_ with lips and tongue that Nathan could only partially track, that even so were stealing the breath from Nathan’s lungs and making his hands shake.  He was overwhelmed, unprepared, had not _imagined_ that he could possibly enjoy something like this, this much, as he was.

Had not imagined Duke would be _that eager_ , that _responsive_ , that _he_ could possibly enjoy something like this, this much.  But he was making urgent, pleased sounds, was so focused on what he was doing that his breathing was coming in ragged and irregular gasps, his hand on Nathan’s hip clinging white-knuckled, his other shifting in terse and untimed strokes up and down as he worked, and there was no mistaking his satisfaction for anything else.

“God, _look_ at you two,” Audrey exhaled, sounding half-breathless herself.  “So beautiful, both of you.  My boys.”

Duke made a new sound, a quiet little hum of acknowledgement or approval or _something_ , and Nathan’s vision swam at the edges, a tiny fluttering _flick flick flick_ in time with his pulse, and Audrey kept talking, slow and unsteady.

“Mmm, Duke, Nathan can’t take his eyes off of you.  Can you see that?  Do you have any idea the way he’s looking at you?  Can’t blame him, he’s _beautiful_ , isn’t he, Nathan, just... So eager for you.”

Duke made another sound, dragged in a gasping breath and visibly redoubled his efforts, and Nathan’s pulse was _racing_ in his ears.  He shifted his grip on Duke’s hair, instinct more than intent, and Duke _whined_ , high and wanting, rocking forward on his knees, and Nathan’s vision whited out, a wave of sheer, overwhelming _elation_ , bright and giddy, rushing over him.  Duke made a startled sound, moved quickly, and Nathan wasn’t immediately sure why until he realized his balance had _vanished_ , and Duke was scrambling to keep him from winding up in a heap on the floor, and he was fairly sure he should be at least a little embarrassed about that, but his mind was _singing_ at him, something not-quite-laughter building in his chest.  He folded into Duke’s hands, let Duke control his unplanned descent so that he landed awkwardly but solidly on the bed, and reached out, dragged Duke in so that _he_ ended up half-sprawled on the bed as well, and Audrey was making a sound that was _definitely_ a poor attempt at covering laughter and Nathan did not care even a little.

“ _Jesus_ , Nathan,” Duke managed, and he sounded like he couldn’t decide whether or not to be amused or concerned, and Nathan pushed closer, wanting _contact_ , thoughts hazy and fluttering.  His hands slid over Duke’s skin, gripping and tugging until he could get close enough to kiss, mouthing his way up Duke’s chest to his shoulder.  He could hear Duke’s heart racing, his breathing still quick and uneven, and Nathan nuzzled into him, dragged in a breath, thoughtless and itching for _more_ , and Duke gave a low, rumbling laugh, something uncertain in it.  “Easy, Nate,” he said, and Nathan’s sense of up-and-down shifted wildly for a moment as Duke did _something_ that Nathan didn’t quite register with his face still pressed into Duke’s skin.  “I got you.”

“Mmn,” Nathan replied, still trying to get closer, trying to wrap himself in _taste_ and _scent_ and _sound_ , and there was a soft shuffle of feet and warm-soft contact at the back of his neck, stroking up and down.

“I think you broke him,” Audrey said, a hint of teasing in her voice, and the world moved again, warm heat and soft skin and the tickle of hair playing against his back as Audrey leaned over him.  He could hear a kiss exchanged, caught breaths and soft sighs, and Nathan reached out blindly, not moving away from the taste of Duke’s skin beneath his seeking mouth; Audrey’s fingers caught his, and she led his hand to her hip, searing warmth against his palm where he caught and held.

“Nnm,” Nathan objected, because he wasn’t _broken_ , but it’d _been awhile_ , and he was... processing.

“Didn’t expect him to just _collapse_ on me, would’ve made him sit down first,” Duke said, still with that faint edge of concern, though there was a roughness to it now, in the wake of Audrey’s kiss.  Audrey laughed quietly, and moved to press a kiss to the back of Nathan’s neck.  Then she leaned over again, and there was another soft exchange of sighs and sounds.

“Mm, but you did a very good job,” Audrey said, the words full of a careful, coaching sort of praise.  “Made him feel good.  Didn’t he, Nathan?”

“Mhm,” Nathan offered, the sound muffled against skin, and Audrey slipped one hand into his hair, tugging lightly.

“You can do better than that,” she chided, and Nathan wasn’t entirely sure she was _correct_ , but he breathed out a heavy sigh and tried to marshal his thoughts, because he’d heard Duke’s soft, short inhale when Audrey had praised him, knew there was something significant in that even if he was still _processing_.

“Very,” he managed, still muffled, and there was another short little inhale, something quiet and fragile.  Nathan blinked, and shifted back, pulled away enough to actually _look_ , and some of the haze cleared, his thoughts sharpening around something visceral and overwhelming at the guarded _vulnerability_ in Duke’s too-wide eyes and barely-parted lips, the _uncertainty_ that clung to him.  He looked- _startled_ , like he hadn’t expected to be told he’d done well, and Nathan didn’t need the second little tug, the silent instruction from Audrey, to recognize that this was definitely something _important_.  He dragged in a breath, forcing himself to _concentrate_ past the buzzing euphoria still clouding his thoughts, and brought one hand up to rest just at the base of Duke’s throat, thumb brushing over skin.

“Amazing,” he added, watching closely, judging the impact, and Duke shivered.  It was a subtle thing, barely enough to see, certainly not enough for Nathan to have noticed with his head down, but it was _real_ , and his breath caught again, his lashes fluttered, his whole body responding to that simple word.  It made Nathan’s chest ache to see, and he leaned in to kiss Duke properly, wishing he were better with words.  Audrey brushed her thumb over the back of his neck before she pulled away, and Duke leaned into the kiss, whiskey muted under bitter salt, now, and the rush of _possessiveness_ really shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Nathan wasn’t quite prepared for just how hard it hit.

Duke was _theirs_.  They were _keeping him_.

Audrey touched Nathan’s side, and Nathan pulled back, let her nudge him out of the way, let her move to take control.  She would know better how to handle that vulnerability, was better at _reassurance_ than he was.  Though he didn’t go _far_ , kept one hand on Duke’s skin, still.  Audrey didn’t object, just moved to straddle Duke’s hips, the outside of her leg brushing along Nathan’s thigh as she moved into place.  Duke reached up to steady her, his hands going to her hips as her hands skated up, over his stomach to rest carefully on his chest.  Nathan dragged in a ragged breath at the sight, at the comparison, Audrey’s slight hands covering so little of Duke, Duke’s wide hands hiding so much of her, rich tan against creamy pale- they were beautiful, the both of them, staggeringly so, and Nathan had no idea how he could _possibly_ be so lucky that they were both _his_.  That he got to have them, like this, flushed and heated and exposed and wanting.

Duke slid his hands up Audrey’s sides, pausing at the band of her bra and giving a questioning tug on the fabric, and she nodded.  Duke’s eyes went dark, long fingers undoing the clasp without any difficulty, and he slid his hands beneath the straps, shifted them down over her shoulders, down her arms, slow and reverent, and Audrey sat up, lifted her hands so that he could remove it completely.  He set it aside, and caught her hands, folding them in his, and Nathan could see him press his thumbs into her palms, draw slow circles as he took in the sight of her.  Nathan wasn’t entirely sure where to look, himself, caught between the keen, pleased surety in Audrey’s hooded eyes, the awe and want and worship on Duke’s face, the sleek soft curves of Audrey’s body, the long lean lines of Duke’s- it was too much, all at once.  His fingertips dug into Duke’s skin, pressed hard below the hollow of his throat, and he shifted enough to slide his other hand along Audrey’s leg, warm-soft-firm under his touch.

Audrey cast a glance in his direction, lips turning up into a faint smirk, and she rolled her hips, and Duke dragged in a breath like a prayer, exhaled Audrey’s name like a plea, his hands going tight around hers as he tensed beneath her.

“Mmm?” she hummed, turning her attention back to Duke, smug and satisfied.  “Like that?”

“ _Fuck_ yes,” Duke breathed out, letting go of Audrey’s hands to steady them on her hips once more, and Nathan could see that he _was_ steadying himself, not her- Audrey’s balance was fine, and Duke’s hands were shaking.

“You want me to do it again?” she asked, as though the answer wasn’t _blindingly obvious_ , as though Duke didn’t look like he was entirely too close to coming apart just at her words, tense and trembling and desperate.

“ _Please_ ,” Duke said, immediately, his hands flexing on her hips.

“Hmm,” Audrey purred, holding perfectly still.  “Are you _sure_?”

“ _Audrey_ ,” Duke whined, visibly struggling not to tug on her, not to just _move her_ the way he clearly wanted, and he _could_ , Nathan knew the strength in those hands, knew that Duke could’ve moved Audrey any damn way he pleased, but he was _careful_ even as he clutched at her.  Was _waiting_ , as he pleaded.

“What do you think, Nathan?” Audrey asked, flicking another glance in his direction, and Duke followed the line of her attention, swallowing hard and fixing Nathan with a desperate look.  “You think I should do it again?”

“...Think you should take these,” Nathan slid his hand up, and plucked at the fabric of her panties, “off first,” he said, and Duke made a strangled noise and closed his eyes, biting down hard on his lower lip.  He dragged in a rough breath, and then another, and a third- evenly spaced, he was _counting_ , was that close to the edge.  Was that worked up, and _that_ was an entirely satisfying thought.  Audrey looked considering, made another thoughtful hum, and nodded.

“I think you’re right,” she said, slipping back- with a second pointed roll of her hips before she did, and Duke whined as he let his grip on her hips go soft and lax.  Audrey stood just long enough to shimmy out of her panties, and tossed them aside, leaving her, _finally_ , as bare as the both of them, and it was everything _Nathan_ could do not to reach out and grab, to tug her nearer.

She moved right back into place, and Nathan reached out to steady her, to help her move, because Duke still had his eyes squeezed shut as he worked to pull himself back from the edge.  Something Audrey apparently didn’t approve of; she frowned as she edged forward on her knees, and tapped Duke’s hip insistently with one hand.

“Look at me, Duke,” she ordered, and Duke opened his eyes immediately, fixed his attention on her like there was nothing else in the world, and Nathan might actually have been jealous, if he weren’t still _buzzing_.  As it was, he could appreciate that intensity, could acknowledge that it was _deserved_ , that he’d do exactly the same, in Duke’s position.  And he thought there should be jealousy with that thought, too, but there wasn’t; there was no need.  And it settled, that this was going to _work_ , that they could handle this, that _he_ could handle this, the last of his questions and doubts slipping soundlessly away under the weight of how much he wanted to see more of that expression on Duke’s face, how much he wanted to see more of Audrey’s comfortable certainty.

“With me?” Audrey asked, a hint of something softer in her voice, genuine question rather than instruction.

“Yeah,” Duke rasped, low and unsteady and honest, and Audrey smiled, soft and sweet and _approving_.

“Good,” she said, and Nathan shifted a little closer, tightened his grip on her hip, pulling her attention.

“Wait,” he said, and Audrey gave him a quizzical look, and Duke’s expression flickered, quickly enough that Nathan couldn’t quite track the emotions there, but he could read the sudden caution, and he shook his head, tried to dismiss that.  “Before- you want,” he started, the words catching, low and rough, “you want him, inside?”

“That is the plan,” Audrey said, breathless and a little pointed, shifting in place and making Duke whimper, and he could hear the confusion under the words.

“Duke, you still keep things in the left drawer?” he asked, because one of them needed to ask, and Duke blinked, _understood_ , clenched his hands into fists as he dragged in a shaky breath, and Nathan was _enjoying_ that.

“Yeah,” he said, “yeah, uh, top- top left, just-”

“No,” Audrey said, and Duke went quiet, clearly startled.  Nathan, too, stopped short, blinking at her, and Audrey rolled her hips again.  “I want _him_.”

“...Don’t think anyone’s arguing,” Nathan managed, barely, the words raspy and low, but at least he was faring better than Duke- for a certain value of better, anyway- who was clearly _speechless_ , eyes round and lips parted and entire body _tense_ , and Nathan almost wasn’t sure if he should be _pitying_ him or not.  Audrey wasn’t exactly playing _fair_ , here.  “Just-”

“Don’t need one, not-” Audrey colored, just a bit, but kept her chin up, “not for, I’m not going to get- I took my own precautions.”  She shifted, and Nathan wasn’t sure if it was deliberate or not, but Duke _swore_ , closed his eyes again, and reached up to catch Audrey’s hips, his hand covering Nathan’s where it still rested there without hesitation.

“Your call, but make a damn decision here, or you’re going to run out of time,” he gritted out, and Audrey made a pleased little sound that didn’t quite hide her amusement.

“But you’re doing so _well_ ,” she said, sweet and teasing.  “Being patient for me.”  And Nathan could _see_ the shudder work its way through Duke’s tense muscles, saw his hand flex over Nathan’s, felt the pressure and the pinch where he pressed him against Audrey just a little too hard, and Nathan’s breath caught, an entirely new surge of _want_ rolling through him at the ghost of sensation, at _feeling_ something in response to Duke’s movement, even if it wasn’t _direct_.  Enough that he nearly missed entirely Audrey’s next words, even if he couldn’t miss the sound Duke made in response.  “You’re going to _keep_ being patient for me, aren’t you?  As long as I tell you to?”

“Audrey, _please_ ,” Duke said, voice thin and strained, but there was a tremble in it, a wobble that suggested he wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking for.

“Please what?” Audrey asked, lifting up on her knees, reaching down to slide her hand along Duke’s skin, stroking slowly, and he _keened_ , high and sharp.  Nathan shivered at the sound, and at the brush of Audrey’s skin along his own as she moved; he flexed his hand at her hip, moved enough to brush his thumb over the side of Duke’s finger, needing to _touch_.  “Please more?  Please less?”

“Aud-”  Duke’s voice broke, and he stopped.  Inhaled.  Exhaled.  Inhaled again.  His count was longer now, and Nathan was so very tempted to try and derail him, just to see if he could.  Audrey, however, simply _waited_ , and Nathan supposed he should be patient- they had _time_ , after all.  This wasn’t _once_.  He had all the time in the world to wring reactions out of Duke, he could wait a little longer.  “Audrey, please, _more_ ,” he managed, after a long moment, voice only slightly steadier.

“How much more?” Audrey asked, and Duke made a fractured, pitiful sound, fixed her with a pleading stare, and Nathan hummed, a note of faint amusement in the sound.

“Have pity, Parker,” he said, voice rough.  “He asked nice, either fuck him or let me, but stop _teasing_.”  And neither of them had expected it, clearly, Audrey swallowing a startled sound and Duke jerking up off the bed with an entirely new noise that Nathan _absolutely_ wanted to hear again.  Audrey had to shift her balance to compensate for his movement, and she huffed out a moan as she did, clearly more affected than she’d been trying to look, and Duke swore, dropped his hands to the bedclothes beneath him and _squeezed_ , bunching the fabric.

“Fucking _hell_ Nathan are you _trying_ to kill me?” Duke demanded, eyes wide and voice rasping, and Audrey laughed breathlessly.

“Hey, now, Nathan, you already got a turn,” she said, flashing a dangerous smile, “but if you’re going to be _impatient_ -” she _moved_ , adjusted position and sank down with a truly wicked roll of her hips and a throaty moan.  Duke keened again, fingers biting harder into the cloth beneath him, gripping for all he was worth, and Nathan scooted up, changed how he was lying so that he had a better view, because _goddamn what a view_.  Audrey’s expression was _beatific_ , eyes nearly closed and head tossed back, lips parted, her arched back putting her hips in sharp relief as she rocked in place.  Duke, for his part, looked very much like he’d just found God, or nirvana, or whatever it was he’d been looking for, strained and eager and still _settled_ in a way Nathan wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Duke look before.

It was a good look.

Audrey moved, slow and sensuous, moaned again as she did, and Duke reached up to transfer his desperate grip from the covers to her hips, swallowing a sound.  Nathan reached out, slid his fingers into Duke’s hair, more carefully than he had when he’d had Duke on his knees, and Duke turned into the touch with a sweet gasp, lashes fluttering as his eyes fell shut.

“Mm, what do I have to do to get your hands on _me_?” Audrey asked, an expression that was too pleased to _really_ be a pout curving her lips.

“Only ever have to ask,” Nathan replied, meaning it, and Audrey smiled, beckoning him closer.

“Then get down here and kiss me,” she instructed.  Nathan rather reluctantly slipped his fingers back out of Duke’s hair, which earned a petulant whine- at least, until Audrey did something with her hips that made him jolt and shift and gasp- and Nathan carefully pushed up onto his knees and shifted down toward the edge of the bed.  He reached out, cradled the line of Audrey’s jaw gently in one hand, reveling in the soft smooth warmth of her, tracing his thumb along her cheek, and she let her eyes flutter closed, turning into the touch.  Her lips grazed the heel of his hand, and he shivered and tilted her head back, leaning in to kiss her.  Slow, at first, a light brush of skin over skin, and it was almost too much, sensation and pressure and heat.  He inhaled shakily, then deepened the kiss, and she leaned into it, parted her lips for him, nipped at his lips, and he groaned, sound pulled from deep in his chest.  Audrey breathed out a laugh, soft and sweet, before she tapped Nathan’s cheek and directed his attention down, made sure he saw that Duke had moved one hand from her hip to Nathan’s.

Nathan shifted his weight to press into the touch, reached down to curve the fingers of his free hand around Duke’s wrist in an encouraging grip, and pulled Audrey into another kiss, rougher and deeper and _more_.  She pressed back, reached up to run one hand up his chest, pulling another sound from him, and he let his touch drop carefully from her cheek to her throat, brushed the back of his hand out along the line of her collarbone.  She _moved_ , and Duke cursed in response, and Nathan felt his balance shift in response to whatever Duke was doing with his hand.  Nathan wasn’t sure where his attention ought to be, was lost in Audrey’s skin and Duke’s sounds, wished he could watch the both of them and still kiss, still taste-

-Audrey hummed, low in her throat, and caught Nathan’s hand, pulled it down her chest to cup her breast, her tongue flicking over his lower lip as she did, and Nathan had to break the kiss to catch his breath, pulled back enough to breathe and caught a strangled _fuck, god_ from Duke when he did.  Audrey didn’t let go of Nathan’s hand, very deliberately leading his touch, kept moving him along her skin- slowly, slowly enough that he could notice every texture, every flicker of _response_ under his hand, the tight-firm-rigid of her nipple, the smooth-soft skin of her breast, the taut-tight-jump of the muscles in her abdomen as she led him lower.  It was- a lot, almost too much, and he never wanted to stop touching her.

“Audrey,” he breathed out, his own form of reverent, and she looked at him from beneath her lashes, intense and wanting and sure, as sure as he’d ever seen her, eyes dark and lips parted and red.  She pulled his hand lower, until he could feel the slightly coarse texture of hair and the higher temperature of her skin, until he could feel the slick wetness of her beneath his fingertips.  She rolled her hips, rocked forward, and her needy whine layered neatly with Duke’s, and he closed his eyes, tried to breathe.

“Nuh-uh, eyes on me,” Audrey said, and Nathan exhaled in a rush and opened his eyes.  Audrey gave him a soft, approving little smile, which damn near cost him whatever marginal amount of steadiness he’d thought he might’ve marshaled.  “That’s it.  I want you to touch me, Nathan, I want you to touch _us_.”

And that was the rest of his steadiness, and he might’ve been ashamed of the broken, eager little sound that escaped him, if it weren’t still slightly more dignified than the noise Duke made at her pronouncement.

Thoughts dragging slow and molten, Nathan worked his fingers down, between her body and Duke’s, knew from the pressure when she rocked forward and ground down, wished like hell he could feel Duke’s skin against the back of his hand, though he thought it’d probably be _too much_ \- it was already almost too much, was already enough to make him tremble.  He could feel her, could trace along the edges of her lips by touch alone, so he kept his eyes on hers, watching her react, watching the way her eyes fluttered closed and her chin tilted back as her breathing picked up, fast and heavy.  He found the firm nub of her clit, traced around it, and she _keened_ , jolted in place against his touch.  He repeated the motion, slow and deliberate, and he couldn’t keep his touch _light_ with how she was moving, but he tried anyway.  Audrey inhaled on a whine, and Nathan wondered just how hard she’d been working to keep herself _steady_ , to keep her illusion of calm control when she was clearly having nearly as much trouble as Duke was, as Nathan knew he _would be_ having, if he could feel what his system was doing.

“Tell me,” he started, voice cracking, shuddering apart around the words, “tell me what- how you, you want me to touch,” he said, and she exhaled sharp and sudden, pulled in another breath.

“Like that,” she said, less steady, less calm.  “Just- _more_.”

Which was not exactly the most helpful instruction he’d ever gotten, but he rolled the pads of his fingers over her, just a little faster, with just a little more pressure, and she moaned, low and eager.  Nathan’s balance shifted again, and he glanced down, tried to figure out _why_ , realized that the hold Duke had on him had gone bruisingly tight, fingertips pressing divots into Nathan’s skin as Duke inhaled raggedly- anchoring himself, Nathan recognized, flicking his thumb out to brush over the inside of Duke’s wrist where he was still lightly touching.  Which clearly didn’t help Duke’s effort for control, made his grip go tighter still and a tremor roll through him, and his eyes were closed, muscles tense.

Nathan pressed his fingers forward, traced back along Audrey’s body until he could tease her clit with the pad of his thumb, until he could feel the slick-hot press of her beneath the whole length of his index and middle fingers, and an _absence_ between, and Duke bit out a string of words that were _definitely_ not English while Audrey whined high and hot, moving with a frantic sort of eagerness, now.

“God, Nathan, _yes_ ,” she managed, “Duke, fuck, _good_ -”

“Audrey-” Duke panted out, the word shaking, “please, fuck, I-”

“Not yet,” Audrey answered, voice too breathy to manage _sharp_ , but still managing to carry the instruction across.  “Being so _good_ , Duke, being patient for us, just a little longer-” she broke off into a bright cry as Nathan very carefully worked one finger along that blank sense of space, slipped in alongside Duke into _hot_ and _wet_ and _tight_ , still pressing slow circles with his thumb, and Duke lapsed into another run of words that Nathan understood just fine even if they _weren’t_ English.  Audrey ground down against him, against Duke, flushed and careless and _needing_ , composure slipping away as she moved.  Nathan was fairly sure he could pinpoint the exact moment she stopped trying to guide the experience and just started _experiencing_ , the moment where she was thinking of nothing more than what she was feeling, eyes glassy and half-closed, hitching little sounds escaping her.

“Like that?” he asked, words rumbling and low, and she whimpered an affirmative, resting her hands above Duke’s hips to balance herself, and Duke _whined_ , a choked-off little sound low in the back of his throat.

“ _Nate_ ,” Duke whined, turning his focus to Nathan, eyes dark with urgency and pleading, skin flushed and dotted with sweat, the pulse in his throat leaping fast and visible, “ _please_ , Nate, I- I need-”

“What do you need?” Nathan asked, working a second finger into Audrey, and she keened and turned, leaning forward to rest her weight against him, forehead pressed into his shoulder and chest rising and falling double-quick against his arm and side.  She brought one hand up from Duke’s skin to clutch at his bicep, and he could _feel_ the tremble, the desperation in her grip.

“ _God_ , Nathan,” she breathed out, and he had to work to keep position, to keep steady, to not be utterly overwhelmed by how much of her skin was in contact with his.  To not lose track of his actions in the surge of _sensation_ that followed.

“ _Nate_ ,” Duke whined again, just as urgent, and that was nearly as potent as the _touch_ , the way they were both saying his name, the way they’d made it something both holy and profane, a prayer and a curse all at once.  “Nate please, I, I- _fuck_ , just-” he sounded utterly wrecked, desperate and needing.

“What do you need, Duke?” Nathan asked again, “Just _what_?”

Duke made another strangled sound, and he was trying, was fighting to find words, and Nathan made an approving noise and brushed his thumb over his wrist again, tightened his hold just enough to remind Duke that he _was_ being held.  Audrey huffed out a moan against Nathan’s shoulder as Duke shifted, as he writhed beneath her, her breathing hitching in almost perfect time with the catch in Duke’s wordless noise.

“ _Please_ , let me- I need, I- just, _please_ , I need to come, I need-” Duke managed, breaking off to take a ragged breath, before he squeezed his eyes shut, flexed his hands where they rested, one still at Nathan’s hip, one at Audrey’s, and fixed Nathan with a careful, desperately vulnerable look.  “Please, Nate, may I?”

Audrey gave a startled, gasping sound, and _shuddered_ , went tight around his fingers, her nails digging into his arm as she _clung_ , as she shook and panted, and Duke _keened_ , a whole new level of desperation in the sound, and Nathan was _dizzy_ with it, with the both of them, with _everything_.  He dragged in a rough breath, heard it shudder and hitch, and let go of Duke’s wrist so that he could shift over, slightly, trying to balance Audrey still leaning against him while still getting close enough to catch a lock of Duke’s hair between his fingertips.

“Well, you asked so nice,” he rasped, giving a careful tug.  “Go ahead.”

And apparently _permission_ had been all he was waiting for; Duke gave a relieved cry, his entire body going tense and taut, and Audrey made another gasping little noise, rocked down, and they were all of them fighting for air, harsh breathing the only sound for a long moment.  Audrey made a reluctant little noise as Nathan slid his hand back, nosed against his collarbone with a sharp huff of air, and Nathan adjusted so that he could press a kiss to the crown of her head, curled his hand around her hip instead.  She murmured something indistinct, something he didn’t catch, and Duke shifted just a bit, head tilted back against the covers, the long lean line of his throat exposed as he panted.

Nathan wished, idly, that he could keep the moment just like it was, that he could keep the both of them here, safely lost in the afterglow, beautiful and perfect and _his_.

He had just started to consider whether he should try to get them to stand up and orient on the bed properly, or just concede defeat and lie down crossways himself when Duke shifted slightly, dark eyes flicking over him, and he made a low hum of a sound.

“Aud,” he rasped, and Audrey _hmm_ ed in response, shifting enough to look at him, her cheek still pressed against Nathan’s chest.  “Nate.”

And Nathan wasn’t sure, for a moment, exactly what he wanted, because it hadn’t sounded like a _request_ , hadn’t sounded like he was seeking Nathan’s attention- until Audrey moved, made another little humming noise, and dragged her hand from his arm across his chest and down, wrapped around him, and Nathan was reminded quite pointedly that he was the furthest thing from _unaffected_ by watching them.  And he could _feel it_ , now, the brilliant flush of arousal- not _everywhere_ , not _fully_ , but _enough_ , enough to draw a broken gasp from him at her touch, at the sharp and urgent pleasure of her hand on his skin.  

“Mm,” Audrey managed, not sounding like she was ready, yet, for more complicated thoughts.

Or maybe she was, because she reached down with her other hand, pried Duke’s grip free from her hip, and brought his hand up to join hers, tangled their fingers together around Nathan’s length, and Nathan honestly wasn’t sure if it was the touch or the sight or Duke’s breathy little whine that sent him over the edge.  And it was _more_ , it was _different_ , the rush of physical sensation pushing the emotional high in a way he’d almost forgotten, and the world did more than fade at the edges.

When he blinked the world back into focus, it was to meet dark eyes directly in front of his own, Duke wearing an expression that would’ve been amused if it weren’t still concerned.

“Actually making you lie down first next time,” he said, voice warm and rough.  “Seriously.”

“Okay,” Nathan agreed, or at least, tried to- it might’ve been entirely less coherent than that, but he wasn’t really sure.  Was pretty sure it didn’t matter, given the soft, affectionate edge to Duke’s smile, and the gentle, repetitive pressure of Audrey’s fingertips moving up and down his arm, and he reached blindly to find her, followed the line of her arm over Duke’s side and determined she must have settled herself down on his other side, pressed against his back.

“Probably a good idea,” Audrey said, sounding lazy and satisfied.  “Don’t want anyone getting bruised.”

“No, we don’t,” Duke agreed, and Nathan shifted, pressed a little closer against Duke, mouthed at his collarbone just because he could.  Because he wanted to, and Duke was there, and wasn’t pulling away.

“Well,” Audrey said, after another moment, “Don’t want anyone getting bruised _accidentally_.”

The words startled a laugh out of Duke, low and warm, and Nathan smirked against his skin, pulled back just enough to eye the still-livid mark he’d worked onto Duke’s neck, the slightly-paler one that Audrey had left at his throat, and considered adding another, just to prove the point.  Just to make it impossible to miss that Duke was _theirs_.

...Later, maybe.  When he’d caught his breath.

***

...Duke had not expected this.  

Was not entirely sure he was _processing_ this, actually, beyond _holy shit_ and _wow_.  Also _sticky_ , which he should probably fix, because if he didn’t fix it now, it was going to quickly become _cold and sticky_.  And maybe he couldn’t process, but cleanup, he could handle.  He could be a conscientious host and a conscientious lover and- handle cleaning up.

Which would be easier, if he could move, if he weren’t framed in place between the two of them.

Nathan was pressed close against his front, still loose-limbed and drowsy-eyed and not looking particularly mobile; Audrey was pressed against his back, but she was moving, shifting a bit, so he turned towards her as he tried to get enough room to stand.  She huffed and pulled back, but her expression twisted into a playful pout; he managed a smile, drew his hand over her hip as he pushed himself up.

“Just going to get a washcloth,” he said as he stood, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he was trying to justify or reassure.

“...Acceptable,” Audrey said, after a moment, moving to fill the space he’d just left, cuddling under Nathan’s arm without hesitation.  Nathan looked entirely happy to have her there, giving her a slow, warm smile, and Audrey gave him a teasing grin as she made herself comfortable.  “Come back quick.”

“Demanding,” Duke teased back, because banter, he could manage, banter made sense- was familiar, was practically instinct, at this point- and he turned and headed for the small bathroom just beyond the doorway off the hall.

He took a moment, out of sight, to gather himself, watching the water swirl around in the basin of the sink as he let it run, one hand deflecting the stream as he waited for it to warm up.  It wasn’t as steadying as he wanted it to be; he’d lost track, somewhere, of his resolve and his clarity, lost it somewhere between Nathan’s mouth and Audrey’s, between instructions to _listen_ and pleas to _stay_.

He wasn’t precisely proud of the fact that he had pretty much begged them not to go.  Wasn’t entirely sure it had been wise, given what followed.

Not that he had any regrets on that front, _at all_ , because _wow_ , that- his pulse jumped just thinking about it, and he wanted _more_ , wanted to try every one of the hundred different configurations he could think of off the top of his head, wanted to touch and taste and _experience_ , never in his _life_ wanted it to stop.

And therein lay the problem.  He never wanted this to stop, and he had no idea what the hell this _was_.  He knew what he _wanted_ it to be, knew what he _hoped for_ , but he was entirely too familiar with the distance between _wanting_ and _having_.  And hope could only do so much, even in a town where miracles were a bi-weekly occurrence.  And they’d insisted this wasn’t _once_ \- and _damn_ but just the _memory_ of Audrey growling out _you’re ours_ made his knees weak- but that didn’t clarify _what_ , exactly, wasn’t once.

He glanced up, pressed his fingertips to the pale red mark at the base of his throat, tilted his head to examine the other, darker and clearly going to linger, and tried not to think too hard about how much of a _thrill_ that had been.  Having each of them, in turn, lay a _claim_ , like that, work their touch into his skin hard enough to be seen.  How much _everything else_ had fallen away, in response.

How much he wanted nothing more than to _stay_ claimed.

The water ran hot against his fingertips, finally, and he pulled himself out of his thoughts, soaked the washcloth he’d grabbed, and wrung it out, and turned to head back into the bedroom-

-and stopped.  Audrey and Nathan were still huddled together, speaking in hushed tones.  Audrey was smiling, warm and soft and unguarded, and Nathan was running his hand along her side, along her back, slow and gentle and _certain_ , and it was- they looked _good_ , together.  They looked _happy_ , and comfortable, content in each other.

They didn’t look like they needed anything else, like everything they’d ever wanted was right in front of them.

The rush of _loss_ caught him off-guard, seeing them like that.  Seeing how perfectly they fit, how _right_ they were together.

How could he ever do anything but disrupt that balance?

Nathan shifted, looked back over his shoulder, _searching_ , and his expression flickered when he caught sight of Duke, some of that easy, gentle warmth falling away.

“You comin’ back?” Nathan asked, voice careful, and Audrey pushed herself up on her elbows to look over the top of Nathan’s shoulder, and her expression shifted as well, and he hated that he was responsible for that change.  But he didn’t want to make it worse, so he smiled, slow and precise.

“It is my bed,” he pointed out, moving closer, and Audrey’s expression flicked further towards _concerned_.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked, reaching out, her hand hanging in the air, beckoning him closer, and he hesitated, just for an instant, before he moved into reach.  She settled her hand at his hip without a moment’s pause, and he leaned into the touch without thinking, _wanting_ it down to his bones.  Wanting to believe he was allowed, that he was welcome.

“Why would anything be wrong?” he asked, the attempt at deflection automatic, thoughtless, and he could see that it had been the wrong thing to say, registered the _disappointment_ in Audrey’s expression, the increased caution from Nathan, and he didn’t know what to do to fix it, didn’t know how to work himself loose from the tangle of _want_ and _fear_.

“Duke,” Nathan said, frowning, voice still rough and low, and he’d heard Nathan say his name hundreds of ways, over the years, in hundreds of circumstances, but that, the mix of concern and command still scraped raw by sex and pleasure, it hit him low in his stomach and coiled around his spine and wow he was in way, way over his head.  “Talk to us, can _see_ something’s wrong.”

“Just-” the word slipped out before he could stop it, and it wasn’t a denial or a deflection, wasn’t anything it should’ve been, because no matter how much he wanted to believe this, he knew better than to take seriously any promise made in bed, knew better than to trust _anything_ said in the heat of the moment.  He knew better than to believe that this _meant anything_ \- it would hardly be the first time that someone had sought him out just to try something _different_.  And if- if that was all it was, if it was _just_ sex and desire and... trying something different, he supposed he had no real grounds to complain.  It was, after all, more than he’d expected, more than he’d had any _right_ to expect.  He could- he could live with this, could accept this, even if that was all it ever was.

He _could_.  And if he told himself that firmly enough, maybe he’d believe it.

Audrey brushed her thumb along his hip, shifted back a little, opening space between her and Nathan once more, and patted the coverlet in front of her.

“C’mere, come back here, just _what_?” she said, and Duke hesitated, because it’d be so very easy to just- yield.  To lie back down and cling to however much more of the moment they were going to let him have, and try and live with it, whatever it turned out to be.

“Just trying to- understand,” he managed, keeping his feet, because it would be easy, but it wouldn’t solve anything, not really, and he wanted them too much, wanted to not fuck things up between them too much, to let himself take the easy way out.  Audrey’s expression shifted, nose wrinkling and eyes narrowing into a perfect little moue of confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked, even as Nathan looked suddenly entirely too knowing, and Duke glanced away, made an effort to avoid their eyes.

“Kinda... caught me by surprise here,” he admitted, the words slow and uneasy.   “I...  This isn’t... what I expected.  I thought-” he broke off, and Nathan moved, sat up and reached out, wrapped his hand around Duke’s wrist, and he tugged once, sharply, a silent demand.  Duke hissed out a sigh, and looked up, met Nathan’s eyes and forced himself to start again, “This isn’t what I expected.”

“...It what you _want_?” Nathan asked, holding his gaze, and Duke shifted, wanted to look down, but Nathan looked serious and intense and _determined_ , and looking away probably wouldn’t actually buy him any breathing room.

“I don’t even know what ‘it’ _is_.”  The admission was more than he’d intended, more honest and more aching and more _pleading_ , and he hated it, hated that he couldn’t keep it back, tried to bury the truth of it behind a sharp-edged smile.  Nathan clearly wasn’t fooled, his eyes narrowing in a visible display of intense thought, and Audrey made a quiet sound, soft and wounded.

“Duke-” she started, and he shook his head, tried to ignore the way her grip had gone sharp and clutching at his hip.

“Look, it’s- it’s fine, you don’t- you don’t have to...  I can handle it, whatever...  Whatever we’re- _you’re_ \- doing, here, it’s, I’m good with it, I can-”

“ _Hey_.”  The word was sharp and stern, an instruction in itself, and Duke stopped, the words freezing in his throat, and he wasn’t going to examine that too closely, wasn’t going to think too hard about the fact that Nathan hadn’t needed more than a syllable to bring him to a standstill.  “Stop, just- stop.  Parker?”

Audrey stood up, pressed into Duke’s space, her hand on his hip sliding back, shifting so she could wrap her arm around his waist, her other hand coming up to catch his jaw, grip careful and firm and uncompromising.

“Look at me, Duke,” she said, and it wasn’t as though he exactly had a choice, but he met her eyes and gritted his teeth and steeled himself for- whatever, because he could handle it.  He _would_ handle it.

He’d certainly handled worse over the years than being allowed a taste of something he wanted so much, and they’d insisted it wasn’t _once_ , he could accept this as a standing arrangement.

“Hey,” Audrey said, and it was much softer than the way Nathan had said it, her brow furrowed and her lips curved up soft and entreating.  “You had it right the first time, Duke, _we’re_.  We.  The three of us.  We want this, Duke, we want you.”

“Kinda figured that part out,” Duke replied, the words slipping out thoughtless and uncertain, and Nathan huffed out an irritated sigh.  Duke glanced up, away from Audrey’s intense stare, and Nathan cocked an eyebrow.

“...Know we want _you_ , not just _this_?” Nathan asked, shrugging his shoulder in a way that Duke was fairly sure was meant to indicate the bed, and the clothes scattered across the floor, but it wasn’t- he didn’t understand the distinction Nathan was trying to draw.

“Didn’t figure you were here for the decor, Nate,” he replied, because it was simple, it was _habit_ , and it was easier than asking for clarification.  He hated not being sure, hated knowing that they _knew_ he was unsure, hated that he couldn’t just keep his mouth shut and take what he was offered.

“We’re not just here for _sex_ , either,” Audrey said, the words careful, gentle and sure and steady, her grip on his jaw going just a fraction tighter as she pulled his attention back to her.  He felt his pulse jump when he met her eyes once more, nerves entirely too obvious, entirely too _visible_ \- her smile wavered, just a bit, and she pressed closer.  “I need you to listen, alright?  You asked me to tell you that this wasn’t just _once_ , remember, and we _both_ told you that it wasn’t.  Now we are both, we are _both_ telling you, this is not just sex.  This is us, being here, with you, because this is where we want to be.  Because we hope this is where _you_ want to be.”

Duke opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find any words, didn’t know what to say to that.  How to answer that.  Because _of course_ it was where he wanted to be, it was _everything_ he wanted, it was- it was everything he wanted, and Duke didn’t get what he wanted, not like this.  Not... simple and honest and offered without strings.  He dropped Audrey’s gaze, eyes going instinctively to Nathan, seeking confirmation, seeking clarity, seeking _something_ , and Nathan met his pleading look with a steady stare, no trace of uncertainty, no trace of doubt, no trace of a lie or a con- and he’d seen plenty of both, from Nathan, knew what they looked like- and his stomach twisted, because _it couldn’t be that simple_.  It couldn’t be that simple, because it was _never_ that simple.

“Told you that,” Nathan said, the words as steady as his gaze, and he stood up, moved up next to Audrey, and she shifted without looking, let him fit himself in beside her with the easy comfort he’d watched them build over the year they’d worked together.  Duke’s breath caught when Nathan reached out, settled a hand on his shoulder too close to his throat to be merely companionable, _hung_ when Nathan hooked his thumb into the cords and chains and gave a careful tug.  “Thought this was _something_.”

And that was still decidedly _nonspecific_ , was vague and open to interpretation, but he supposed that coming from _Nathan_ it was still damn impressive, was the sort of effort that should be encouraged.  Was the sort of effort that should be answered in kind.

“What-” he cleared his throat, dragged in a breath, and Audrey pressed closer, warm and yielding against his side, “what kind of- of something?”

“The kind where we’re _dating_ , Duke,” Audrey said, with the sort of gentle compassion he’d heard her employ with people who were at risk of major property damage via Trouble, and he wondered just how tense he actually looked, to have gotten that tone.  “ _We_.  All three of us.  You included.”

“That kinda somethin’,” Nathan agreed.  “Thought it was goin’ pretty well, too.”

“...And that,” Duke started, and the words still wanted to stick, “that, it’s what you want.  Both of you.”

“ _Yes_ ,” Audrey said, with enough conviction that Duke couldn’t doubt her, no matter how little sense it made to him.  “That is _exactly_ what we want.”

“Wouldn’t’ve been doin’ it more’n a month if it _wasn’t_ ,” Nathan said, sounding entirely more wry than Audrey.

“Duke.  We thought this was _already happening_.  We thought you _knew_ this was happening.  We _want this_.  We want _you_.”  Audrey leaned in, tipped her head forward so that she was resting her forehead against his collarbone, tightened her arm around his waist.  “We want nights out and days off and dinners and, yes, _really good sex_ , okay, we want all of it, and we want it _with you_.”  Audrey tilted her head back, looked up at him, expression earnest and honest and still entirely too _gentle_.  “And we really, really hope you want that, too.”

“This’s what we want.” Nathan said, before he dragged in a breath and added, carefully, “Is it what you want?”

Duke tensed automatically at his tone; it was _familiar_ , and not in a good way- it was Nathan’s _bracing for disappointment_ tone, and _that_ , more than the earnestness, more than the coaxing, made it click that _they actually meant it_.  That Nathan was both _invested_ and _unsure_ \- he _wanted_ this, enough that the wrong answer would hurt him.

...Nathan and Audrey wanted a relationship.  With him.

And maybe it was never that simple, and maybe Duke didn’t usually get what he wanted, but maybe, just this once, it didn’t matter.  Maybe _his_ luck didn’t figure in, if it was what _they_ wanted.

Nathan and Audrey, after all, had a much higher success rate when it came to pulling off the impossible than he did.

“...Christ, yes,” he said, and it wasn’t enough, it was nowhere _near_ enough, but it was all he could manage, his throat tight and the words rasping.  And he could feel Audrey _relax_ against him, fold into him in a way that made him bring an arm up to encircle her waist automatically, to balance her.  Nathan took a moment longer, his intense look searching and still braced- and then he relaxed too, tension sliding out of him on the heels of a startled puff of air.

“ _Good_ ,” Audrey said, the word warm against his skin.  “So we can stay?”

“Please,” Duke managed, not quite as soft as the first time.  “Please, stay.”

“Not going anywhere,” Nathan said, and he sounded _certain_ , sounded _relieved_ , and it was- it was a good sound, and Duke still wasn’t entirely sure how _his answer_ could’ve done that, but it had.

They actually meant it, they wanted this.

That was a thought that would require getting used to.

“Definitely not going anywhere,” Audrey said, before she laughed slightly.  “Except back to bed.  Think we can manage that?”

“...Yeah,” Duke said, blinking, trying to settle that notion, somehow, trying to make it _real_.  Because Audrey was still leaning against him, Nathan was still leaning against him, both of them were still close and warm and _not leaving_.  “I think we can manage that.  That, that mean you two’re... planning to stay the night?”  Which was maybe still too optimistic, too much-

“Unless you’re planning on kicking us out, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Audrey replied, taking a step back and stretching, “and I am telling you now, I will be very disappointed if you try to kick us out.”

“...Sure,” Duke said, slightly distracted by the sight, by the casual, comfortable way she made no effort to hide or cover up, and by the rush of relief at the idea that she _really did plan to stay_ , that Nathan wasn’t arguing or even looking mildly concerned at the idea.  “I mean, no, I’m, not- I want you to stay.”

“Good,” Nathan said, voice low and steady, and he gave Duke a firm nudge back toward the bed, reaching down to pull the covers down.  He took the damp- and, now, entirely too cool to be comfortable- washcloth out of Duke’s hand with a silent quirk of one brow, and Duke shook his head; he’d need to go warm it up again for it to be worth the effort.  Nathan shrugged and tossed it aside, giving Duke another push, forcing him to actually move his feet this time.  “C’mon, can shower later.”

“Nate-” the word slipped out, and Duke wasn’t actually sure what he was asking, if he was asking anything at all, but Nathan didn’t seem to have any trouble understanding; he paused, gave Duke another entirely-too-knowing look, and reached up, curled his fingers around the back of Duke’s neck.

“Not goin’ anywhere.  Come back to bed.”  The words were steady and confident, the touch moreso, and Duke yielded, let Nathan guide him back to the bed, where Audrey was already firmly ensconced under the covers.  It took a little work to settle properly, and Duke could hear his pulse just a little too loud in his ears as Audrey pressed in against his right side and Nathan bracketed his left, but it was- it was good, it was _comfortable_ , if unfamiliar.  Audrey hummed out a sigh and reached over him to take Nathan’s hand, and their linked fingers came to rest just below Duke’s solar plexus.

There was something decidedly satisfying about that, about the weight of their joined hands.

They were quiet, for a moment, Audrey smoothing her thumb up and down, up and down along the outside of Nathan’s, where Duke could feel the movement, as well.   Nathan adjusted so that his nose was pressed firmly into the crook of Duke’s neck, and Duke couldn’t help but start to relax.

“I still don’t understand,” Audrey said, after a moment, voice sleepy and lacking any urgency, and Nathan made a quiet, curious sound below Duke’s ear.  “We were _going out_.  We went on _dates_.  Multiple dates.”

“Figured the first two,” Nathan mumbled, but he shifted, chose a position that let him actually _look_ at Duke.

“Yeah, but,” Audrey said, and she shifted as well, and Duke felt his pulse begin to climb again at the scrutiny.  “What about dinner, the third time, at Blue Lily?  If neither of us said anything-”

“Jennifer,” Duke said, the word dry and too quick.  “She.  I was at the Gull, she came in for a drink, freaked out at me about being late.  Didn’t know what the hell she was talking about but she sounded pretty sure of herself, and it wouldn’t be the first time there’d been a, a Haven thing and I’d forgotten something important.”  He shrugged, tried to avoid the pair of focused gazes fixed on him.  “Figured it was safer not to argue, I went where she told me to go.”  Duke paused, drew in a breath.  “Why, exactly, did Jennifer know I was supposed to be there?”

“I told her,” Audrey said, a note of reluctant chagrin in her voice.  “She- I told her, after our first- the first time, what we thought was the first time.  She knew I thought it was all of us, and we’d had lunch together, the day before, I told her about the reservations so she’d make sure Dwight didn’t keep us late.”

“What about the band competition?” Nathan asked quietly, eyes narrowed, and Duke squirmed, because he did _not_ want to explain that, but they were both still _watching_ , waiting for an answer.

“...Heard you tell Dwight you two were going.  Was trying to-” he broke off, crawlingly uncomfortable, and Audrey shifted, let go of Nathan’s hand to rest her own at the base of his throat, fingers tangling in his necklaces, and it _shouldn’t_ be comforting, but it eased the worst of the buzzing anxiety that had filled his skin.  “Big event, public place, was... trying to give you a chance to tell me to back off.”  Nathan’s expression went wooden at that, and Audrey made a soft, hurt sound and pressed closer, and Duke shrugged.  “Heard you, talking to Jennifer.  Knew you two were going out, that I’d- overstepped.  Then with the thing with the movies, and Jennifer- I didn’t, I wasn’t _trying_ to get in the way, and by then I was- I was just trying to get out of the way.  Look, it’s- it’s fine, it-”

“It’s not _fine_ ,” Nathan said, the words flat and clearly not open to argument.  “Should never’ve felt like you had to do that.  Shouldn’t’ve put you in that position.”

“We really thought-” Audrey started, but she broke off, and Duke shifted, moved insistently enough that she sat up a bit, and he slid his arm around her shoulders, pulled her close.  “Wait.  You thought it was a date, a just me and Nathan date, and you still picked up the tab for dinner?”

“It was a little late to be quibbling about technicalities at that point,” Duke said, a flicker of amusement in his tone as Audrey settled herself against his shoulder.

“Still,” Audrey said, sounding vaguely apologetic.  “That’s kinda going above and beyond.”

“...What I don’t get,” he said, the words careful, cautious, “I don’t- _neither of you_ asked me to be there, but you both just... accepted that I was?”

“Thought Nathan’d invited you,” Audrey said, shrugging.

“Thought Audrey’d invited you,” Nathan countered, with a shrug of his own.

“...And you were both just.  Okay with that.”  He could hear the incredulity in his own voice, knew he was maybe pushing a little too hard, given how very much he _wanted_ them to both be okay with that, given that they were here and clearly currently okay with that, but it was _baffling_.

“With having you there?  Of course I was,” Audrey said, with more of that reluctant chagrin.  “I was thrilled, I wasn’t- I wasn’t going to ask questions that might- I figured, if he’d made that call, it was _important_ , and probably took a lot of, of courage, and I just.  Didn’t want to make it complicated.”

“...Was a little _surprised_ ,” Nathan admitted, the words slow and not entirely easy.  “Wasn’t gonna make a scene, just- figured I’d see what happened.”  And Duke could read between the lines there- _surprised_ had maybe not been a good thing, but Nathan wasn’t going to argue with Audrey over something Audrey wanted, even if that something was _Duke_.  “And what happened was that it _worked_ ,” Nathan added, the words almost sharp.  “It worked, it was- good.  Wasn’t gonna make a fuss when it was _working_.”

“Huh.”  Duke absently trailed his fingertips along Audrey’s shoulder, thinking, because it was- it surprised him, a little, that they hadn’t _talked_ about it, but he supposed it wasn’t technically the first time they’d both chosen to stay quiet about something that maybe would’ve been better managed with a conversation.  He’d _seen_ that, after all, from both of them- and only ever when it was something they cared about.  Something important enough to them that they couldn’t quite find the words.

That thought, too, would require some getting used to.

“So last week,” Audrey said, into the quiet space that followed, “that, that wasn’t a date?”

“...It might’ve kinda been a date,” Duke yielded.  “We’d had a rough week.”  And he’d needed the reassurance, that they were there, that they were hale and whole and as safe as anyone ever was, in Haven.

“Was nice,” Nathan said, shifting so that he could stretch an arm out across Duke’s chest, enough that the tips of his fingers were brushing Audrey’s skin.  “Nice havin’ some time, just the three of us.  Could use more of that.”

“Yeah, well, now I know this is actually a thing, can probably make that happen,” Duke said, managing a slightly awkward shrug, despite his cramped position.  “Didn’t know I was allowed to make plans.”

“You are,” Audrey said, immediate and firm.

“...Getting that,” he agreed, and _that_ opened up all kinds of possibilities.  There were all kinds of things the two of them never seemed to slow down enough to think about experiencing, and maybe they still had a completely unreasonable pile of responsibilities and expectations, but he’d always been good at knowing just how to steal a little time.  He could at least make sure they remembered to take breaks now and again, to do things that weren’t just going from one emergency to the next.

He could contribute, could be of use.

Could maybe, in some small way, earn his place.

“Good.  Important that you know,” Nathan said, something very much like guilt in his voice.

“Yeah, this whole thing, it probably works a lot better if we actually talk about things,” Audrey said, and he could hear the curl of a smile in her voice, wry and real.  Her hand brushed over his chest, fingers playing along Nathan’s arm.  “Think that’s something we can do?”

“I have never once been accused of talking too little,” Duke said, which was absolutely a lie, but it won him a laugh from Audrey and a huff of amusement from Nathan, so he figured it was fair enough.  “But yeah, sure, communication, I’m, I’m all for that.”

“...Think we can manage,” Nathan agreed, shifting to catch Audrey’s hand, lacing their fingers together and settling them neatly over Duke’s ribs.  “Make sure we’re all- on the same page, anyway.”

“Good,” Audrey said, tone slipping into something content and sure.  “Want this to work.”

And really, Duke thought, that kind of settled things- if Audrey wanted this to work, it’d work, if only because he knew damn well that neither he nor Nathan was willing to disappoint her.  ...And it was enough, for the moment, to settle him, to leave him drifting in the comfortable space between them, warm and relaxed and somehow, unbelievably, _welcome_.

It was exactly where he wanted to be.


End file.
